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Sen. Bernard “Bernie” Sanders’s 2015 Report Card

Junior Senator from Vermont
Independent
Serving Jan 4, 2007 – Jan 3, 2025

These year-end statistics cover Sanders’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare him to other senators serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 9, 2016.

A higher or lower number below doesn’t necessarily make this legislator any better or worse, or more or less effective, than other Members of Congress. We present these statistics for you to understand the quantitative aspects of Sanders’s legislative career and make your own judgements based on what activities you think are important.

Keep in mind that there are many important aspects of being a legislator besides what can be measured, such as constituent services and performing oversight of the executive branch, which aren’t reflected here.

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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the lowest % of bills compared to All Senators

Sanders tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 0% of Sanders’s 29 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile).

Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic.
 

Ranked the 2nd bottom/follower compared to Serving 10+ Years

Our unique leadership analysis looks at who is cosponsoring whose bills. A higher score shows a greater ability to get cosponsors on bills.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Sanders’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (3rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (2nd percentile); All Senators (4th percentile).

 

Got the 4th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs

Sanders’s bills and resolutions had 55 cosponsors in 2015. Securing cosponsors is an important part of getting support for a bill, although having more cosponsors does not always mean a bill will get a vote. View Bills »

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (8th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (9th percentile); All Senators (19th percentile).

 

Was 7th most absent in votes compared to All Senators

Sanders missed 8.3% of votes (28 of 339 votes) in 2015. View Sanders’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (93rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); All Senators (93rd percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 19th most bills compared to All Senators (tied with 4 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 12 of Sanders’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the House. Working with a sponsor in the other chamber makes a bill more likely to be passed by both the House and Senate.

Those bills were: S. 570: Comprehensive Dental Reform Act of …; S. 1041: End Polluter Welfare Act of …; S. 1206: Too Big To Fail, Too …; S. 1364: Medicaid Generic Drug Price Fairness …; S. 1366: A bill to amend the …; S. 1506: Employ Young Americans Now Act; S. 1631: Keep Our Pension Promises Act; S. 1677: Responsible Estate Tax Act; S. 2023: Prescription Drug Affordability Act of …; S. 2054: Justice is Not For Sale …; S. 2142: Workplace Democracy Act; S. 2242: Save Oak Flat Act

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (73rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (70th percentile); All Senators (77th percentile).

Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service.
 

Laws Enacted

Sanders introduced 0 bills that became law in 2015. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile).

A bill or joint resolution is considered enacted if it or an exactly identical bill to it is enacted as law. We only consider bills that the legislator was the primary sponsor of. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, such as through incorporation into larger bills, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively.
 

Bills Introduced

Sanders introduced 29 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (40th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (48th percentile); All Senators (58th percentile).

 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Sanders introduced 0 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

3 of Sanders’s bills and resolutions in 2015 had a cosponsor who was a chair or ranking member of a committee that the bill was referred to. Getting support from committee leaders on relevant committees is a crucial step in moving legislation forward.

Those bills were: S. 878: A bill to establish a …; S. 964: Nuclear Plant Decommissioning Act of …; S. 2142: Workplace Democracy Act

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (28th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (39th percentile); All Senators (48th percentile).

 

Committee Positions

Sanders held a leadership position on 1 committee and 1 subcommittee, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Sanders’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (43rd percentile); All Senators (66th percentile).

 

Bills Cosponsored

Sanders cosponsored 151 bills and resolutions introduced by other Members of Congress. Cosponsorship shows a willingness to work with others to advance policy goals. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (38th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (35th percentile); All Senators (42nd percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Sanders supported any of 19 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave Sanders 3 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Sanders cosponsored S. 229: Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting …; S. 366: Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act; S. 1538: Fair Elections Now Act

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (68th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (63rd percentile); All Senators (64th percentile).

Additional Notes

Leadership/Ideology: The leadership and ideology scores are not displayed for Members of Congress who introduced fewer than 10 bills, or, for ideology, for Members of Congress that have a low leadership score, as there is usually not enough data in these cases to compute reliable leadership and ideology statistics.

Missing Bills: We exclude bills from some statistics where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill because the bill’s text was replaced in whole with unrelated provisions (i.e. it became a vehicle for passage of unrelated provisions).

Ranking Members (RkMembs): The chair of a committee is always selected from the political party that holds the most seats in the chamber, called the “majority party”. The “ranking member” (sometimes “RkMembs”) is the title given to the senior-most member of the committee not in the majority party.

Freshmen/Sophomores: Freshmen and sophomores are Members of Congress whose first term (in the same chamber at the end of 2015) was the 114th Congress (freshmen) or 113th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.