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Rep. Bobby Rush’s 2015 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 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare him to other representatives 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 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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Got the 2nd fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Illinois Delegation

Rush’s bills and resolutions had 22 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 Illinois Delegation (6th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (10th percentile); House Democrats (9th percentile); Safe House Seats (9th percentile); All Representatives (10th percentile).

 

Introduced the 5th fewest bills compared to Illinois Delegation (tied with 1 other)

Rush introduced 9 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (22nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (31st percentile); House Democrats (35th percentile); Safe House Seats (39th percentile); All Representatives (40th percentile).

 

Was 7th most absent in votes compared to All Representatives

Rush missed 15.6% of votes (110 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Rush’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (97th percentile); Safe House Seats (98th percentile); All Representatives (98th 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.
 

Cosponsored the 44th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)

Rush cosponsored 302 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 (89th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (88th percentile); House Democrats (78th percentile); Safe House Seats (89th percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 33rd least often compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 28 others)

1 of Rush’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: H.R. 275: To establish a commission to …

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (22nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (19th percentile); House Democrats (21st percentile); Safe House Seats (20th percentile); All Representatives (21st percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Rush 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 Illinois Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (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 Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Rush introduced 0 bills in 2015 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).

 

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.
 

Committee Positions

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. View Rush’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (50th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Democrats (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (36th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Joining Bipartisan Bills

Of the 302 bills that Rush cosponsored, 26% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (61st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (64th percentile); House Democrats (34th percentile); Safe House Seats (69th percentile); All Representatives (69th 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 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Rush 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Rush cosponsored H.R. 20: Government By the People Act …; H.R. 3838: Fairness in Incarcerated Representation Act

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (50th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Democrats (31st percentile); Safe House Seats (62nd percentile); All Representatives (65th 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.