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Rep. Debra Haaland’s 2020 Report Card

Representative from New Mexico's 1st District
Democrat
Served Jan 3, 2019 – Mar 16, 2021

These statistics cover Haaland’s record during the 116th Congress (Jan 3, 2019-Jan 3, 2021) and compare her to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 30, 2021.

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 Haaland’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 bicameral support on the most bills compared to All Representatives

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 25 of Haaland’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. 682: Recognizing National Native American Heritage …; H.Res. 835: Expressing the sense of the …; H.Res. 1102: Recognizing the duty of the …; H.R. 1050: ANTIQUITIES Act; H.R. 1900: Native American Business Incubators Program …; H.R. 2031: PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act; H.R. 2384: Military Housing Oversight and Service …; H.R. 2438: Not Invisible Act of 2020; H.R. 2494: Tribal Nutrition Improvement Act of …; H.R. 2495: Energy Technology Maturation Act of …; H.R. 2640: Buffalo Tract Protection Act; H.R. 2791: Department of Veterans Affairs Tribal …; H.R. 3315: Universal Child Care and Early …; H.R. 3838: Honoring Family-Friendly Workplaces Act; H.R. 3879: SOAR Act; H.R. 3977: Justice for Native Survivors of …; H.R. 4269: Climate Stewardship Act of 2019; H.R. 5511: Interregional Transmission Planning Improvement Act …; H.R. 6274: CDC Tribal Public Health Security …; H.R. 7774: DIGITAL Reservations Act; H.R. 8271: Environmental Justice Legacy Pollution Cleanup …; H.R. 8420: Truth and Healing Commission on …; H.R. 8665: Extending Tribal Broadband Priority Act …; H.R. 8729: Native American Language Resource Center …; H.Con.Res. 88: Supporting the Farmers Bill of …

Compare to all House Freshmen (99th percentile); House Democrats (100th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile).

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

Got influential cosponsors the most often compared to House Freshmen

15 of Haaland’s bills and resolutions in the 116th 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. 173: Recognizing the heritage, culture, and …; H.Res. 469: Recognizing the 50th anniversary of …; H.Res. 735: Recognizing the maternal health crisis …; H.Res. 835: Expressing the sense of the …; H.Res. 950: Expressing support for the designation …; H.Res. 975: Expressing support for a national …; H.Res. 1102: Recognizing the duty of the …; H.R. 1900: Native American Business Incubators Program …; H.R. 2031: PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act; H.R. 2384: Military Housing Oversight and Service …; H.R. 2438: Not Invisible Act of 2020; H.R. 3879: SOAR Act; H.R. 3977: Justice for Native Survivors of …; H.R. 4269: Climate Stewardship Act of 2019; H.R. 4289: Bridging Agency Data Gaps and …

Compare to all House Freshmen (99th percentile); House Democrats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (95th percentile).

 

Held the most committee positions compared to House Freshmen

Haaland 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 Haaland’s Profile »

Compare to all House Freshmen (99th percentile); House Democrats (97th percentile); All Representatives (97th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the most bills compared to House Freshmen

Haaland cosponsored 935 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 House Freshmen (99th percentile); House Democrats (94th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile).

 

Got the most cosponsors on their bills compared to House Freshmen

Haaland’s bills and resolutions had 1,081 cosponsors in the 116th 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 House Freshmen (99th percentile); House Democrats (87th percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

 

Introduced the 2nd most bills compared to House Freshmen

Haaland introduced 51 bills and resolutions in the 116th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all House Freshmen (98th percentile); House Democrats (88th percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

 

Ranked the 2nd 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 116th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Haaland’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all House Freshmen (98th percentile); House Democrats (79th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 2nd most bills compared to House Freshmen (tied with 2 others)

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 24 of Haaland’s 51 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Haaland caucused with in the 116th Congress.

Compare to all House Freshmen (96th percentile); House Democrats (88th percentile); All Representatives (92nd percentile).

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

Wrote the 4th most laws compared to House Freshmen (tied with 1 other)

Haaland introduced 5 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 116th Congress. 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. 1900: Native American Business Incubators Program …; H.R. 2031: PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act; H.R. 2438: Not Invisible Act of 2020; H.R. 2791: Department of Veterans Affairs Tribal …; H.R. 7289: Rent the Camo: Access to …

Compare to all House Freshmen (95th percentile); House Democrats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (95th 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 4th most often compared to House Freshmen (tied with 3 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Haaland introduced 9 bills in the 116th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.Res. 720: Expressing the sense of the …; H.R. 1900: Native American Business Incubators Program …; H.R. 2031: PROGRESS for Indian Tribes Act; H.R. 2438: Not Invisible Act of 2020; H.R. 2640: Buffalo Tract Protection Act; H.R. 2791: Department of Veterans Affairs Tribal …; H.R. 3879: SOAR Act; H.R. 3977: Justice for Native Survivors of …; H.R. 7289: Rent the Camo: Access to …

Compare to all House Freshmen (93rd percentile); House Democrats (86th percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile).

 

Ranked 9th most politically left compared to All Representatives

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 116th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Haaland’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all House Freshmen (4th percentile); House Democrats (3rd percentile); All Representatives (2nd percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 24th least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 935 bills that Haaland cosponsored, 5% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all House Freshmen (6th percentile); House Democrats (10th percentile); All Representatives (5th percentile).

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

Missed Votes

Haaland missed 1.0% of votes (10 of 954 votes) in the 116th Congress. View Haaland’s Profile »

Compare to all House Freshmen (51st percentile); All Representatives (28th 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.

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 116th Congress) was the 116th Congress (freshmen) or 115th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.