Rep. Don Young’s 2015 Report Card
Representative
from Alaska's At-Large District
Republican
Served Mar 6, 1973 – Mar 18, 2022
These year-end statistics cover Young’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 Young’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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Introduced the most bills compared to House RepublicansYoung introduced 46 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Republicans (100th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile). |
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Got bicameral support on the 2nd most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.R. 521: To provide for the conveyance …; H.R. 672: Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Extension …; H.R. 1728: Summer Meals Act of 2015; H.R. 2284: Point Spencer Land Conveyance Act; H.R. 2386: Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities …; H.R. 2387: Alaska Native Veterans Land Allotment …; H.R. 2388: Subsistence Access Management Act of …; H.R. 3269: North Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation …; H.R. 4289: To provide for the conveyance … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Republicans (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 19th most often compared to House RepublicansIn this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 200 bills that Young cosponsored, 23% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (54th percentile); House Republicans (92nd percentile); Safe House Seats (62nd percentile); All Representatives (61st 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 bipartisan cosponsors on the 20th lowest % of bills compared to House RepublicansYoung tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 24% of Young’s 46 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (38th percentile); House Republicans (18th percentile); Safe House Seats (31st percentile); All Representatives (29th percentile). Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Got their bills out of committee the 26th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 7 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Young introduced 4 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 336: To direct the Administrator of …; H.R. 521: To provide for the conveyance …; H.R. 538: Native American Energy Act; H.R. 1335: Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (89th percentile); House Republicans (87th percentile); Safe House Seats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile). |
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Ranked 41st most politically right compared to Serving 10+ YearsOur 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 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Young’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (76th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (64th percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile). |
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Was 46th most absent in votes compared to All RepresentativesYoung missed 6.7% of votes (46 of 690 votes) in 2015. View Young’s Profile » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (86th percentile); Safe House Seats (88th percentile); All Representatives (89th 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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Cosponsored the 47th most bills compared to House RepublicansYoung cosponsored 200 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 (61st percentile); House Republicans (81st percentile); Safe House Seats (62nd percentile); All Representatives (63rd percentile). |
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Got the 56th most cosponsors on their bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 1 other)Young’s bills and resolutions had 286 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 Serving 10+ Years (67th percentile); House Republicans (77th percentile); Safe House Seats (75th percentile); All Representatives (76th percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the 61st most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 43 others)4 of Young’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. Those bills were: H.R. 394: Prevention of Escapement of Genetically …; H.R. 1335: Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing …; H.R. 2684: Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas Equal …; H.R. 2744: Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (69th percentile); House Republicans (75th percentile); Safe House Seats (75th percentile); All Representatives (76th percentile). |
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Laws EnactedYoung introduced 1 bill that became law in 2015. 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. 521: To provide for the conveyance … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Republicans (79th percentile); Safe House Seats (82nd percentile); All Representatives (82nd 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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Committee PositionsYoung 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 Young’s Profile » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (36th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile). |
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Leadership ScoreOur 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 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Young’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (64th percentile); House Republicans (60th percentile); Safe House Seats (69th percentile); All Representatives (70th percentile). |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Young supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Young 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); House Republicans (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (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.
