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Sen. Claire McCaskill’s 2017 Report Card

Senior Senator from Missouri
Democrat
Served Jan 4, 2007 – Jan 3, 2019

These year-end statistics cover McCaskill’s record during the 2017 legislative year (Jan 3, 2017-Dec 31, 2017) and compare her to other senators serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 6, 2018.

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 McCaskill’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 4th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Serving 10+ Years

McCaskill’s bills and resolutions had 73 cosponsors in 2017. 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 Serving 10+ Years (7th percentile); Senate Democrats (11th percentile); All Senators (17th percentile).

 

Ranked the 5th bottom/follower compared to Serving 10+ Years

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 2017 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from McCaskill’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (10th percentile); Senate Democrats (17th percentile); All Senators (20th percentile).

 

Ranked 6th most politically right compared to Senate Democrats

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 2017 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from McCaskill’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (41st percentile); Senate Democrats (87th percentile); All Senators (41st percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 7th most often compared to All Senators

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 154 bills that McCaskill cosponsored, 51% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); Senate Democrats (89th percentile); All Senators (93rd percentile).

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

Cosponsored the 9th fewest bills compared to Senate Democrats

McCaskill cosponsored 154 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 Serving 10+ Years (51st percentile); Senate Democrats (17th percentile); All Senators (51st percentile).

 

Was 8th most absent in votes compared to All Senators (tied with 4 others)

McCaskill missed 4.0% of votes (13 of 325 votes) in 2017. View McCaskill’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (80th percentile); All Senators (88th percentile).

 

Held the 9th fewest committee positions compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 7 others)

McCaskill held a leadership position on 1 committee and 0 subcommittees, 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 McCaskill’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (20th percentile); Senate Democrats (59th percentile); All Senators (59th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 15th most often compared to All Senators (tied with 8 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. McCaskill introduced 9 bills in 2017 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: S. 89: A bill to amend title …; S. 906: Reducing DHS Acquisition Cost Growth …; S. 1088: Federal Agency Customer Experience Act …; S. 1199: Border Enforcement Security Task Force …; S. 1296: PRIVATE Act; S. 1884: REPORT Act; S.Res. 177: A resolution congratulating the Webster …; S.Res. 347: A resolution commemorating the 62nd …; S.Res. 364: A resolution congratulating the University …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (61st percentile); Senate Democrats (85th percentile); All Senators (77th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

McCaskill introduced 1 bill that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2017. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. View Enacted Bills »

Those bills were: S. 1296: PRIVATE Act

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (49th percentile); Senate Democrats (65th percentile); All Senators (49th 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 Introduced

McCaskill introduced 25 bills and resolutions in 2017. View Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (51st percentile); Senate Democrats (39th percentile); All Senators (50th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

1 of McCaskill’s bills and resolutions in 2017 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: S. 1199: Border Enforcement Security Task Force …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (5th percentile); Senate Democrats (2nd percentile); All Senators (8th percentile).

 

Working with the House

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 7 of McCaskill’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the House. 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: S. 75: Arla Harrell Act; S. 89: A bill to amend title …; S. 856: Campus Accountability and Safety Act; S. 1201: Health Care Options for All …; S. 1893: Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act …; S. 1960: A bill to repeal the …; S.Res. 177: A resolution congratulating the Webster …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (46th percentile); Senate Democrats (35th percentile); All Senators (43rd 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. 8 of McCaskill’s 25 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2017.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (46th percentile); Senate Democrats (43rd percentile); All Senators (47th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether McCaskill supported any of 8 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave McCaskill 1 point, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

McCaskill cosponsored S. 2236: Congressional Harassment Reform Act

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (61st percentile); Senate Democrats (41st percentile); All Senators (54th 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 2017) was the 115th Congress (freshmen) or 114th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.