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Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s 2017 Report Card

Representative from Virginia's 6th District
Republican
Served Jan 5, 1993 – Jan 3, 2019

These year-end statistics cover Goodlatte’s record during the 2017 legislative year (Jan 3, 2017-Dec 31, 2017) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 6, 2018.

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 Goodlatte’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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Held the most committee positions compared to Virginia Delegation (tied with 1 other)

Goodlatte held a leadership position on 1 committee and 0 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. For comparison to other Members of Congress, we assigned a score giving five points for each full committee leadership position and one point for each subcommittee leadership position. View Goodlatte’s Profile »

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (82nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (76th percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 3rd fewest bills compared to Virginia Delegation

Goodlatte cosponsored 122 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 Virginia Delegation (18th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (28th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); All Representatives (23rd percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 5th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 3 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Goodlatte introduced 13 bills in 2017 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 5: Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017; H.R. 732: Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act …; H.R. 954: To remove the use restrictions …; H.R. 985: Fairness in Class Action Litigation …; H.R. 1695: Register of Copyrights Selection and …; H.R. 2406: Immigration and Customs Enforcement Authorization …; H.R. 2407: United States Citizenship and Immigration …; H.R. 2605: Secret Service Reauthorization Act of …; H.R. 3003: No Sanctuary for Criminals Act; H.R. 3004: Kate’s Law; H.R. 3989: USA Liberty Act of 2017; H.R. 4092: AG Act; H.Con.Res. 33: Designating the George C. Marshall …

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (91st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (97th percentile); House Republicans (97th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile).

 

Supported government transparency the 8th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)

GovTrack looked at whether Goodlatte supported any of 21 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Goodlatte 6 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Goodlatte sponsored H.R. 732: Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act …; H.R. 522: Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act …

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (91st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Republicans (98th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 9th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 5 others)

9 of Goodlatte’s bills and resolutions in 2017 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: H.R. 5: Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017; H.R. 45: Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017; H.R. 522: Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act …; H.R. 732: Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act …; H.R. 2605: Secret Service Reauthorization Act of …; H.R. 3989: USA Liberty Act of 2017; H.Con.Res. 33: Designating the George C. Marshall …; H.J.Res. 1: Proposing a balanced budget amendment …; H.J.Res. 2: Proposing a balanced budget amendment …

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (91st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); House Republicans (97th percentile); All Representatives (97th percentile).

 

Introduced the 19th most bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 1 other)

Goodlatte introduced 23 bills and resolutions in 2017. View Bills »

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (82nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (84th percentile); House Republicans (92nd percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 23rd least often compared to Serving 10+ Years

Of the 122 bills that Goodlatte cosponsored, 11% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (27th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (13th percentile); House Republicans (45th percentile); All Representatives (25th percentile).

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

Was 18th most present in votes compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 10 others)

Goodlatte missed 0.7% of votes (5 of 710 votes) in 2017. View Goodlatte’s Profile »

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (10th percentile); All Representatives (21st percentile).

The Speaker of the House, per current House rules, is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings” and is never recorded as missing a vote, and may not be included in the comparison with other representatives if not voting. The delegates from the five island territories and the District of Columbia are not eligible to vote in most roll call votes and so may not appear here if not elligible for any vote during the time period of these statistics.
 

Got the 23rd most cosponsors on their bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 1 other)

Goodlatte’s bills and resolutions had 447 cosponsors in 2017. 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 Virginia Delegation (82nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (81st percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile).

 

Ranked 24th most politically right compared to Serving 10+ Years

Our unique ideology analysis assigns a score to Members of Congress according to their legislative behavior by how similar the pattern of bills and resolutions they cosponsor are to other Members of Congress.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2017 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Goodlatte’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (55th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (85th percentile); House Republicans (46th percentile); All Representatives (70th percentile).

 

Ranked the 31st top leader compared to All Representatives

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 2017 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Goodlatte’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (82nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); House Republicans (88th percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 27th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 14 others)

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 11 of Goodlatte’s 23 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2017.

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (82nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (89th percentile); House Republicans (87th percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Goodlatte introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2017. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

The legislator must be the primary sponsor of the bill or joint resolution that was enacted or the primary sponsor of a bill or joint resolution for which at least about one third of its text was incorporated into another bill or joint resolution that was enacted as law, as determined by an automated analysis. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively. We also exclude bills where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill.
 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 2 of Goodlatte’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the Senate. 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: H.R. 954: To remove the use restrictions …; H.J.Res. 1: Proposing a balanced budget amendment …

Compare to all Virginia Delegation (36th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (52nd percentile); House Republicans (52nd percentile); All Representatives (54th percentile).

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

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 2017) was the 115th Congress (freshmen) or 114th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.