Rep. Brian Higgins’s 2022 Report Card
Representative
from New York's 26th District
Democrat
Serving Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2025
These statistics cover Higgins’s record during the 117th Congress (Jan 3, 2021-Jan 3, 2023) and compare him to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Feb 12, 2023.
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 bicameral support on the 20th fewest bills compared to House Democrats (tied with 20 others)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.R. 2517: Comprehensive Care for Alzheimer’s Act; H.R. 4385: Cancer Drug Parity Act of … Compare to all New York Delegation (15th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (16th percentile); House Democrats (9th percentile); All Representatives (22nd percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Got their bills out of committee the 26th least often compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 23 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Higgins introduced 1 bill in the 117th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 2142: To designate the facility of … Compare to all New York Delegation (4th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (13th percentile); House Democrats (3rd percentile); All Representatives (13th percentile). |
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Ranked the 77th top leader compared to All RepresentativesOur 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 117th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Higgins’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all New York Delegation (70th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Democrats (68th percentile); All Representatives (82nd percentile). |
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Got the 99th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)Higgins’s bills and resolutions had 557 cosponsors in the 117th 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 New York Delegation (59th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (67th percentile); House Democrats (63rd percentile); All Representatives (77th percentile). |
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Laws EnactedHiggins introduced 1 bill that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 117th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. View Enacted Bills » Those bills were: H.R. 2142: To designate the facility of … Compare to all New York Delegation (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (28th percentile); House Democrats (18th percentile); All Representatives (35th 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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Bills IntroducedHiggins introduced 21 bills and resolutions in the 117th Congress. View Bills » Compare to all New York Delegation (26th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (40th percentile); House Democrats (29th percentile); All Representatives (43rd percentile). |
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Powerful Cosponsors4 of Higgins’s bills and resolutions in the 117th 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. 2142: To designate the facility of …; H.R. 2517: Comprehensive Care for Alzheimer’s Act; H.R. 2654: Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act …; H.R. 2881: Medicare Buy-In and Health Care … Compare to all New York Delegation (37th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (49th percentile); House Democrats (43rd percentile); All Representatives (56th percentile). |
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Writing Bipartisan BillsIn this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 12 of Higgins’s 21 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Higgins caucused with in the 117th Congress. Compare to all New York Delegation (44th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Democrats (48th percentile); All Representatives (66th percentile). Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic. |
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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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Bills CosponsoredHiggins cosponsored 424 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 (37th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (61st percentile); House Democrats (39th percentile); All Representatives (64th percentile). |
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Joining Bipartisan BillsOf the 424 bills that Higgins cosponsored, 6% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all New York Delegation (52nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (39th percentile); House Democrats (52nd 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. |
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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 the 117th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Higgins’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all New York Delegation (44th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (37th percentile); House Democrats (53rd percentile); All Representatives (27th percentile). |
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Missed VotesHiggins missed 0.7% of votes (7 of 998 votes) in the 117th Congress. View Higgins’s Profile » Compare to all New York Delegation (26th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (29th percentile); All Representatives (34th 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 117th Congress) was the 117th Congress (freshmen) or 116th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.
