Sen. Daniel Coats’s 2016 Report Card
Senior
Senator
from Indiana
Republican
Served Jan 5, 2011 – Jan 3, 2017
These statistics cover Coats’s record during the 114th Congress (Jan 6, 2015-Jan 3, 2017) and compare him to other senators also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Aug 24, 2017. The statistics were updated on Jan 20, 2017 and Aug 24, 2017 to improve how we counted enacted laws. Originally published on Jan 7, 2017.
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 Coats’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 their bills out of committee the least often compared to Senate Republicans (tied with 1 other)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Coats introduced 0 bills in the 114th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); Senate Republicans (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 2nd fewest bills compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 1 other)In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 1 of Coats’s 15 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 114th Congress. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (2nd percentile); Senate Republicans (0th percentile); All Senators (1st percentile). |
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Got the 3rd fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to All SenatorsCoats’s bills and resolutions had 34 cosponsors in the 114th 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 Serving 10+ Years (2nd percentile); Senate Republicans (4th percentile); All Senators (2nd percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the 4th least often compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 2 others)1 of Coats’s bills and resolutions in the 114th 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: S. 1413: Higher Education Tax Benefit Compliance … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (6th percentile); Senate Republicans (9th percentile); All Senators (8th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 6th fewest bills compared to All SenatorsCoats cosponsored 138 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 (6th percentile); Senate Republicans (9th percentile); All Senators (5th percentile). |
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Ranked the 6th bottom/follower compared to All SenatorsOur 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 114th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Coats’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (6th percentile); Senate Republicans (7th percentile); All Senators (5th percentile). |
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Introduced the 6th fewest bills compared to All Senators (tied with 1 other)Coats introduced 15 bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress. View Bills » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (6th percentile); Senate Republicans (9th percentile); All Senators (5th percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 11th least often compared to All SenatorsOf the 138 bills that Coats cosponsored, 16% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (13th percentile); Senate Republicans (19th percentile); All Senators (10th 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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Got bicameral support on the 15th fewest bills compared to All Senators (tied with 5 others)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: S. 400: Notice for Organizations That Include …; S. 989: Residue Entries and Streamlining Trade …; S. 1758: Control Unlawful Fugitive Felons Act …; S. 1927: REVIEW Act of 2015; S. 2998: Ensuring Patient Access to Critical … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); Senate Republicans (19th percentile); All Senators (14th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Laws EnactedCoats introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 114th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); Senate Republicans (0th percentile); All Senators (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. |
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Committee PositionsCoats 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. View Coats’s Profile » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); Senate Republicans (72nd percentile); All Senators (66th percentile). |
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Missed VotesCoats missed 3.0% of votes (15 of 502 votes) in the 114th Congress. View Coats’s Profile » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (74th percentile); All Senators (73rd percentile). |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Coats supported any of 22 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave Coats 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); Senate Republicans (0th percentile); All Senators (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 114th Congress) 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.
