Rep. Brian Higgins’s 2019 Report Card
Representative
from New York's 26th District
Democrat
Serving Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2025
These year-end statistics cover Higgins’s record during the 2019 legislative year (Jan 3, 2019-Dec 31, 2019) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 18, 2020.
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 Higgins’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 their bills out of committee the least often compared to New York Delegation (tied with 1 other)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Higgins introduced 0 bills in 2019 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Compare to all New York Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). |
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Introduced the 2nd fewest bills compared to New York Delegation (tied with 2 others)Higgins introduced 10 bills and resolutions in 2019. View Bills » Compare to all New York Delegation (4th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (28th percentile); House Democrats (13th percentile); All Representatives (34th percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 5th fewest bills compared to New York Delegation (tied with 1 other)In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 6 of Higgins’s 10 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Higgins caucused with in 2019. Compare to all New York Delegation (15th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (40th percentile); House Democrats (31st percentile); All Representatives (49th percentile). Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic. |
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Got influential cosponsors the 5th least often compared to New York Delegation (tied with 4 others)2 of Higgins’s bills and resolutions in 2019 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. 1346: Medicare Buy-In and Health Care …; H.R. 1730: Cancer Drug Parity Act of … Compare to all New York Delegation (15th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (31st percentile); House Democrats (21st percentile); All Representatives (40th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 97th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)Higgins cosponsored 362 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 New York Delegation (50th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Democrats (60th percentile); All Representatives (78th percentile). |
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Laws EnactedHiggins introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2019. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. Compare to all New York Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (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. |
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Working with the SenateThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.R. 1730: Cancer Drug Parity Act of …; H.R. 1973: Vaccine Access Improvement Act of … Compare to all New York Delegation (31st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (34th percentile); House Democrats (31st percentile); All Representatives (46th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Committee PositionsHiggins 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 Higgins’s Profile » Compare to all New York Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). |
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Joining Bipartisan BillsOf the 362 bills that Higgins cosponsored, 11% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all New York Delegation (58th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (50th percentile); House Democrats (65th percentile); All Representatives (35th percentile). Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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CosponsorsHiggins’s bills and resolutions had 233 cosponsors in 2019. 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 New York Delegation (27th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (46th percentile); House Democrats (43rd percentile); All Representatives (62nd percentile). |
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Ideology ScoreOur 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 2019 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Higgins’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all New York Delegation (54th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (43rd percentile); House Democrats (57th percentile); All Representatives (31st percentile). |
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Leadership ScoreOur 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 2019 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Higgins’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all New York Delegation (27th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (51st percentile); House Democrats (47th percentile); All Representatives (66th percentile). |
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Missed VotesHiggins missed 1.4% of votes (10 of 701 votes) in 2019. View Higgins’s Profile » Compare to all New York Delegation (50th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (38th percentile); All Representatives (45th 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 2019) 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.
