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Rep. Bobby Rush’s 2013 Report Card

Representative from Illinois's 1st District
Democrat
Served Jan 5, 1993 – Jan 3, 2023

These year-end statistics cover Rush’s record during the 2013 legislative year (Jan 3, 2013-Dec 26, 2013) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Dec 1, 2014. On Dec. 1, 2014, the statistics were updated to remove Sen. Schatz from the list of Senate sophomores. Schatz only served for several days in the preceding Congress.

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 Rush’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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Ranked 2nd most politically left compared to Illinois Delegation

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 2013 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Rush’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (6th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (18th percentile); House Democrats (27th percentile); Safe House Seats (14th percentile); All Representatives (13th percentile).

 

Held the 2nd most committee positions compared to Illinois Delegation (tied with 2 others)

Rush held a leadership position on 0 committees and 1 subcommittee, 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 Rush’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (78th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (22nd percentile); House Democrats (44th percentile); Safe House Seats (46th percentile); All Representatives (47th percentile).

 

Ranked the 3rd bottom/follower compared to Illinois Delegation

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 2013 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Rush’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (11th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (16th percentile); House Democrats (19th percentile); Safe House Seats (14th percentile); All Representatives (13th percentile).

 

Was 4th most absent in votes compared to All Representatives

Rush missed 35.6% of votes (228 of 641 votes) in 2013. View Rush’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th 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 4th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Illinois Delegation

Rush’s bills and resolutions had 45 cosponsors in 2013. 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 Illinois Delegation (17th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (22nd percentile); House Democrats (23rd percentile); Safe House Seats (23rd percentile); All Representatives (23rd percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 36th most bills compared to All Representatives

Rush cosponsored 287 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 Illinois Delegation (83rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (90th percentile); House Democrats (84th percentile); Safe House Seats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (92nd percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Rush introduced 0 bills that became law in 2013. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

We only count enacted bills (and joint resolutions) that the legislator was the primary sponsor of. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, such as through companion bills or incorporation into larger bills, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively.
 

Bills Introduced

Rush introduced 11 bills and resolutions in 2013. View Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (72nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (51st percentile); House Democrats (62nd percentile); Safe House Seats (64th percentile); All Representatives (63rd percentile).

 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Rush introduced 0 bills in 2013 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

1 of Rush’s bills and resolutions in 2013 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. 3709: Protecting Consumer Access to Generic …

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (28th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (28th percentile); House Democrats (31st percentile); Safe House Seats (31st percentile); All Representatives (31st percentile).

 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 0 of Rush’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.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

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

Writing Bipartisan Bills

Rush tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 0% of Rush’s 11 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2013.

Compare to all House Democrats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

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

Joining Bipartisan Bills

Of the 287 bills that Rush cosponsored, 26% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (56th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (65th percentile); House Democrats (34th percentile); Safe House Seats (69th percentile); All Representatives (66th percentile).

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

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Rush supported any of 12 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Rush 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th 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 2013) was the 113th Congress (freshmen) or 112th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.