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Rep. Christopher “Chris” Smith’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from New Jersey's 4th District
Republican
Serving Jan 5, 1981 – Jan 3, 2025

These year-end statistics cover Smith’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 Smith’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 bipartisan cosponsors on the highest % of bills compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 1 other)

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 67% of Smith’s 33 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); House Republicans (89th percentile); Safe House Seats (94th percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

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

Got influential cosponsors the 2nd most often compared to All Representatives

14 of Smith’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.Res. 310: Expressing the sense of the …; H.Res. 354: Expressing the sense of the …; H.R. 7: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion …; H.R. 514: Human Trafficking Prioritization Act; H.R. 515: International Megan’s Law to Prevent …; H.R. 1103: Increasing American Jobs Through Greater …; H.R. 1159: Hong Kong Human Rights and …; H.R. 1559: Health Outcomes, Planning, and Education …; H.R. 1567: Global Food Security Act of …; H.R. 1782: Cuba Human Rights Act of …; H.R. 2140: Vietnam Human Rights Act of …; H.R. 3243: To amend title XI of …; H.R. 3515: Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act of …; H.R. 3596: Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring …

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (92nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (98th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Republicans (100th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile).

 

Introduced the 3rd most bills compared to House Republicans

Smith introduced 33 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (92nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (98th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (96th percentile); House Republicans (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (98th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 3rd most bills compared to New Jersey Delegation

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 3 of Smith’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.Res. 310: Expressing the sense of the …; H.R. 7: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion …; H.R. 2870: Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act …

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (75th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (62nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (68th percentile); House Republicans (71st percentile); Safe House Seats (71st percentile); All Representatives (71st percentile).

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

Ranked the 6th top leader compared to All Representatives

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 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Smith’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (92nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (96th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Republicans (98th percentile); Safe House Seats (98th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Got the 6th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)

Smith’s bills and resolutions had 888 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 New Jersey Delegation (92nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (98th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Republicans (98th percentile); Safe House Seats (98th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile).

 

Held the 6th most committee positions compared to All Representatives (tied with 6 others)

Smith held a leadership position on 1 committee 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 Smith’s Profile »

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (92nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); House Republicans (96th percentile); Safe House Seats (97th percentile); All Representatives (97th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 14th most often compared to House Republicans

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 153 bills that Smith cosponsored, 24% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (33rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (72nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (61st percentile); House Republicans (94th percentile); Safe House Seats (66th percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile).

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

Ranked 29th most politically left compared to House Republicans

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 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Smith’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (83rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (47th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (63rd percentile); House Republicans (11th percentile); Safe House Seats (51st percentile); All Representatives (50th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 34th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 16 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Smith introduced 3 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.Res. 354: Expressing the sense of the …; H.R. 1567: Global Food Security Act of …; H.R. 2820: Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research …

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (83rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (70th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (85th percentile); House Republicans (81st percentile); Safe House Seats (88th percentile); All Representatives (89th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Smith introduced 1 bill that became law in 2015. 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. 2820: Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research …

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (67th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (70th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Republicans (79th percentile); Safe House Seats (82nd percentile); All Representatives (82nd 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 Cosponsored

Smith cosponsored 153 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 Jersey Delegation (50th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (42nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (41st percentile); House Republicans (53rd percentile); Safe House Seats (38th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Missed Votes

Smith missed 1.1% of votes (8 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Smith’s Profile »

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (42nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (44th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (28th percentile); Safe House Seats (35th percentile); All Representatives (36th 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.
 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Smith supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Smith 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (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 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.