Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s 2019 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 2019 legislative year (Jan 3, 2019-Dec 31, 2019) and compare her to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 18, 2020.
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.
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Introduced the most bills compared to All RepresentativesNorton introduced 73 bills and resolutions in 2019. View Bills » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Democrats (100th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the most bills compared to All RepresentativesNorton cosponsored 1,283 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 (100th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile). |
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Ranked 3rd most politically left compared to All RepresentativesOur 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 2019 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); All Representatives (0th percentile). |
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Was 23rd most absent in votes compared to All RepresentativesNorton missed 13.1% of votes (38 of 291 votes) in 2019. View Norton’s Profile » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); All Representatives (95th 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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Joined bipartisan bills the 23rd least often compared to All RepresentativesOf the 1283 bills that Norton cosponsored, 5% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (8th percentile); House Democrats (9th 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. |
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Got their bills out of committee the 59th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 23 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Norton introduced 4 bills in 2019 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 866: Fairness For Breastfeeding Mothers Act …; H.R. 1318: To direct the Librarian of …; H.R. 2185: District of Columbia Flood Prevention …; H.R. 2726: Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (70th percentile); House Democrats (70th percentile); All Representatives (81st percentile). |
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Ranked the 74th top leader compared to All RepresentativesOur 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 2019 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Norton’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Democrats (71st percentile); All Representatives (83rd percentile). |
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Got the 79th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All RepresentativesNorton’s bills and resolutions had 465 cosponsors in 2019. 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 (70th percentile); House Democrats (69th percentile); All Representatives (82nd percentile). |
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Got bicameral support on the 70th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 34 others)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.Res. 638: Congratulating the Washington Mystics on …; H.R. 51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act; H.R. 2726: Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act …; H.R. 3003: National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (70th percentile); House Democrats (67th percentile); All Representatives (76th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Laws EnactedNorton introduced 1 bill that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2019. 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. 866: Fairness For Breastfeeding Mothers Act … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (53rd percentile); House Democrats (57th percentile); All Representatives (63rd 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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Powerful Cosponsors3 of Norton’s bills and resolutions in 2019 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. 51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act; H.R. 339: Low-Wage Federal Contractor Employee Back …; H.R. 5068: Women Who Worked on the … Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); House Democrats (42nd percentile); All Representatives (59th percentile). |
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Writing Bipartisan BillsIn this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 6 of Norton’s 73 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Norton caucused with in 2019. Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (40th percentile); House Democrats (31st percentile); All Representatives (49th percentile). Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic. |
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Committee PositionsNorton 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 (14th percentile); House Democrats (40th percentile); All Representatives (42nd 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 2019) 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.
