skip to main content

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from District of Columbia's At-Large District
Democrat
Serving Jan 3, 1991 – Jan 3, 2025

These year-end statistics cover Norton’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare her 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 Norton’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...

 

Cosponsored the most bills compared to All Representatives

Norton cosponsored 651 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 (99th percentile); House Democrats (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (100th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile).

 

Ranked 2nd 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 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Norton’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (1st percentile); House Democrats (1st percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Supported government transparency the 2nd most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)

GovTrack looked at whether Norton supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Norton 8 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Norton sponsored H.R. 552: District of Columbia Budget Autonomy …

Norton cosponsored H.R. 430: DISCLOSE 2015 Act; H.R. 20: Government By the People Act …; H.R. 653: FOIA Act; H.R. 2173: Redistricting Reform Act of 2015; H.R. 3838: Fairness in Incarcerated Representation Act

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Democrats (98th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Introduced the 4th most bills compared to All Representatives

Norton introduced 43 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Democrats (98th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 4th lowest % of bills compared to All Representatives

Norton tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 5% of Norton’s 43 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (2nd percentile); House Democrats (3rd percentile); Safe House Seats (2nd percentile); All Representatives (2nd percentile).

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

Joined bipartisan bills the 17th least often compared to House Democrats

Of the 651 bills that Norton cosponsored, 18% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (43rd percentile); House Democrats (8th percentile); Safe House Seats (53rd percentile); All Representatives (51st percentile).

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

Laws Enacted

Norton 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 Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (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.
 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Norton introduced 0 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

2 of Norton’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. 317: New Columbia Admission Act; H.R. 3029: RECOVER Act

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Democrats (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (43rd percentile); All Representatives (44th percentile).

 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 2 of Norton’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. 317: New Columbia Admission Act; H.R. 3029: RECOVER Act

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (49th percentile); House Democrats (54th percentile); Safe House Seats (53rd percentile); All Representatives (55th percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Norton 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 Norton’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Democrats (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (36th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Cosponsors

Norton’s bills and resolutions had 188 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 (56th percentile); House Democrats (61st percentile); Safe House Seats (63rd percentile); All Representatives (64th percentile).

 

Leadership Score

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 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Norton’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (46th percentile); House Democrats (62nd percentile); Safe House Seats (49th percentile); All Representatives (51st 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.