skip to main content
Hide All The Ads With a Yearly Membership Subscribe ▶

Rep. Clay Higgins’s 2018 Report Card

Representative from Louisiana's 3rd District
Republican
Serving Jan 3, 2017 – Jan 3, 2025

These statistics cover Higgins’s record during the 115th Congress (Jan 3, 2017-Jan 3, 2019) and compare him to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 20, 2019.

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.

Jump to...

 

Wrote the fewest laws compared to Louisiana Delegation (tied with 1 other)

Higgins introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 115th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (0th percentile); House Freshmen (0th percentile); House Republicans (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.
 

Got their bills out of committee the 6th most often compared to House Freshmen (tied with 5 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Higgins introduced 6 bills in the 115th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.Res. 990: Supporting the officers and personnel …; H.R. 1252: DHS Acquisition Authorities Act of …; H.R. 2131: Fixing Internal Response to Misconduct …; H.R. 4564: Post-Caliphate Threat Assessment Act of …; H.R. 5242: School Resource Officer Assessment Act …; H.R. 5693: Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (67th percentile); House Freshmen (84th percentile); House Republicans (59th percentile); All Representatives (76th percentile).

 

Introduced the 11th most bills compared to House Freshmen

Higgins introduced 23 bills and resolutions in the 115th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (83rd percentile); House Freshmen (84th percentile); House Republicans (66th percentile); All Representatives (66th percentile).

 

Was 14th most absent in votes compared to House Freshmen

Higgins missed 3.1% of votes (38 of 1,210 votes) in the 115th Congress. View Higgins’s Profile »

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (50th percentile); House Freshmen (79th percentile); All Representatives (57th 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.
 

Ranked the 17th top leader compared to House Freshmen

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 115th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Higgins’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (33rd percentile); House Freshmen (75th percentile); House Republicans (44th percentile); All Representatives (49th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 24th most often compared to House Republicans (tied with 11 others)

7 of Higgins’s bills and resolutions in the 115th 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.Res. 990: Supporting the officers and personnel …; H.R. 1252: DHS Acquisition Authorities Act of …; H.R. 2131: Fixing Internal Response to Misconduct …; H.R. 2751: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement …; H.R. 2752: United States Citizenship and Immigration …; H.R. 4564: Post-Caliphate Threat Assessment Act of …; H.R. 5693: Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (83rd percentile); House Freshmen (96th percentile); House Republicans (85th percentile); All Representatives (84th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 42nd least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 159 bills that Higgins cosponsored, 8% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (50th percentile); House Freshmen (14th percentile); House Republicans (17th percentile); All Representatives (9th percentile).

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

Cosponsored the 77th fewest bills compared to All Representatives

Higgins cosponsored 159 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 Louisiana Delegation (50th percentile); House Freshmen (30th percentile); House Republicans (29th percentile); All Representatives (17th percentile).

 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 3 of Higgins’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. 2785: Veterans Emergency Room Relief Act …; H.R. 3367: LNG Now Act of 2017; H.R. 5260: Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies Act

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (17th percentile); House Freshmen (73rd percentile); House Republicans (58th percentile); All Representatives (54th 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. 6 of Higgins’s 23 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Higgins caucused with in the 115th Congress.

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (67th percentile); House Freshmen (52nd percentile); House Republicans (35th percentile); All Representatives (37th percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Higgins held a leadership position on 0 committees and 1 subcommittee, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Higgins’s Profile »

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (33rd percentile); House Freshmen (72nd percentile); House Republicans (37th percentile); All Representatives (39th percentile).

 

Cosponsors

Higgins’s bills and resolutions had 144 cosponsors in the 115th 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 Louisiana Delegation (33rd percentile); House Freshmen (54th percentile); House Republicans (39th percentile); All Representatives (32nd 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 115th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Higgins’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (50th percentile); House Freshmen (73rd percentile); House Republicans (47th percentile); All Representatives (71st percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Higgins supported any of 32 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Higgins 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all Louisiana Delegation (0th percentile); House Freshmen (0th percentile); House Republicans (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 the 115th Congress) 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.