Rep. Collin Peterson’s 2015 Report Card
Representative
from Minnesota's 7th District
Democrat
Served Jan 3, 1991 – Jan 3, 2021
These year-end statistics cover Peterson’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 Peterson’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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Joined bipartisan bills the most often compared to All RepresentativesIn this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 232 bills that Peterson cosponsored, 72% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (88th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (98th percentile); Competitive House Seats (98th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Democrats (99th percentile); All Representatives (100th 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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Introduced the fewest bills compared to Minnesota DelegationPeterson introduced 2 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (4th percentile); Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (1st percentile); House Democrats (1st percentile); All Representatives (2nd percentile). |
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Got the fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Minnesota DelegationPeterson’s bills and resolutions had 2 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 Minnesota Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (6th percentile); Competitive House Seats (4th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (4th percentile); House Democrats (2nd percentile); All Representatives (3rd percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the least often compared to Minnesota Delegation (tied with 1 other)0 of Peterson’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. Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). |
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Held the 2nd most committee positions compared to Competitive House Seats (tied with 1 other)Peterson 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 Peterson’s Profile » Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (75th percentile); Competitive House Seats (95th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Democrats (89th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 11th most bills compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembsPeterson cosponsored 232 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 Minnesota Delegation (50th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (79th percentile); Competitive House Seats (78th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (72nd percentile); House Democrats (52nd percentile); All Representatives (74th percentile). |
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Was 35th most present in votes compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 4 others)Peterson missed 0.9% of votes (6 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Peterson’s Profile » Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (38th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (31st percentile); Competitive House Seats (29th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (20th percentile); All Representatives (25th 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. |
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Laws EnactedPeterson introduced 0 bills that became law in 2015. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th 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. |
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Bills Out of CommitteeMost bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Peterson introduced 0 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). |
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Working with the SenateThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Peterson supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Peterson 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (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.
