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Rep. Brendan Boyle’s 2020 Report Card

Representative from Pennsylvania's 2nd District
Democrat
Serving Jan 3, 2019 – Jan 3, 2025


These statistics cover Boyle’s record during the 116th Congress (Jan 3, 2019-Jan 3, 2021) and compare him to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 30, 2021.

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 Boyle’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.

 

Introduced the 3rd most bills compared to Pennsylvania Delegation

Boyle introduced 35 bills and resolutions in the 116th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (83rd percentile); House Democrats (68th percentile); All Representatives (79th percentile).


 

Joined bipartisan bills the 5th least often compared to Pennsylvania Delegation

Of the 474 bills that Boyle cosponsored, 10% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (22nd percentile); House Democrats (55th percentile); All Representatives (30th percentile).

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


 

Got influential cosponsors the 104th least often compared to All Representatives (tied with 59 others)

2 of Boyle’s bills and resolutions in the 116th Congress 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. 2377: Protect Drinking Water from PFAS …; H.R. 2755: Buy America 2.0 Act

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (33rd percentile); House Democrats (7th percentile); All Representatives (24th percentile).


 

Laws Enacted

Boyle introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 116th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (0th percentile); House Democrats (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.


 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Boyle introduced 0 bills in the 116th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (0th percentile); House Democrats (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. 1 of Boyle’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. 7123: Katherine’s Lung Cancer Early Detection …

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (6th percentile); House Democrats (5th percentile); All Representatives (9th percentile).

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


 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 15 of Boyle’s 35 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Boyle caucused with in the 116th Congress.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (72nd percentile); House Democrats (60th percentile); All Representatives (73rd percentile).

Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic.


 

Committee Positions

Boyle held a leadership position on 0 committees and 0 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Boyle’s Profile »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).


 

Bills Cosponsored

Boyle cosponsored 474 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 Pennsylvania Delegation (61st percentile); House Democrats (42nd percentile); All Representatives (68th percentile).


 

Cosponsors

Boyle’s bills and resolutions had 368 cosponsors in the 116th Congress. 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 Pennsylvania Delegation (72nd percentile); House Democrats (38th percentile); All Representatives (60th percentile).


 

Ideology Score

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 the 116th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Boyle’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (28th percentile); House Democrats (60th percentile); All Representatives (33rd percentile).


 

Leadership Score

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 the 116th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Boyle’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (67th percentile); House Democrats (38th percentile); All Representatives (61st percentile).


 

Missed Votes

Boyle missed 1.5% of votes (14 of 954 votes) in the 116th Congress. View Boyle’s Profile »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (33rd percentile); All Representatives (35th 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.


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 the 116th Congress) was the 116th Congress (freshmen) or 115th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.