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Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Connecticut's 5th District
Democrat
Served Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2019

These year-end statistics cover Esty’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 Esty’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 2nd most bills compared to Competitive House Seats

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 6 of Esty’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. 478: Protecting Children from Electronic Cigarette …; H.R. 479: American Jobs Matter Act of …; H.R. 646: Lower Farmington River and Salmon …; H.R. 1375: Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act …; H.R. 1441: Manufacturing Universities Act of 2015; H.Con.Res. 37: Recognizing the need to improve …

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (96th percentile); House Sophomores (95th percentile); House Democrats (94th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

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

Cosponsored the 3rd most bills compared to Competitive House Seats

Esty cosponsored 300 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 Competitive House Seats (95th percentile); House Sophomores (85th percentile); House Democrats (77th percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).

 

Ranked 3rd most politically left compared to Competitive House Seats

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 Esty’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (4th percentile); House Sophomores (22nd percentile); House Democrats (52nd percentile); All Representatives (23rd percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 6th highest % of bills compared to House Democrats

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 57% of Esty’s 14 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (50th percentile); House Sophomores (86th percentile); House Democrats (93rd percentile); All Representatives (83rd percentile).

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

Got the 7th most cosponsors on their bills compared to Competitive House Seats

Esty’s bills and resolutions had 322 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 Competitive House Seats (87th percentile); House Sophomores (82nd percentile); House Democrats (81st percentile); All Representatives (80th percentile).

 

Supported government transparency the 6th most often compared to Competitive House Seats (tied with 5 others)

GovTrack looked at whether Esty supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Esty 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Esty cosponsored H.R. 430: DISCLOSE 2015 Act; H.R. 20: Government By the People Act …

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (80th percentile); House Sophomores (62nd percentile); House Democrats (31st percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile).

 

Introduced the 11th most bills compared to Competitive House Seats

Esty introduced 14 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (80th percentile); House Sophomores (75th percentile); House Democrats (67th percentile); All Representatives (70th percentile).

 

Was 14th most present in votes compared to House Sophomores (tied with 6 others)

Esty missed 0.7% of votes (5 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Esty’s Profile »

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (22nd percentile); House Sophomores (18th percentile); All Representatives (21st 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.
 

Ranked the 37th top leader compared to House Democrats

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 Esty’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (75th percentile); House Sophomores (75th percentile); House Democrats (81st percentile); All Representatives (68th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 49th most often compared to All Representatives

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 300 bills that Esty cosponsored, 38% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (78th percentile); House Sophomores (82nd percentile); House Democrats (75th percentile); All Representatives (89th percentile).

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

Laws Enacted

Esty 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 Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); House Sophomores (0th percentile); House Democrats (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. Esty introduced 0 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); House Sophomores (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

3 of Esty’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. 478: Protecting Children from Electronic Cigarette …; H.R. 752: Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device …; H.R. 2894: CARE for All Veterans Act

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (67th percentile); House Sophomores (68th percentile); House Democrats (57th percentile); All Representatives (62nd percentile).

 

Committee Positions

Esty held a leadership position on 0 committees and 0 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Esty’s Profile »

Compare to all Competitive House Seats (0th percentile); House Sophomores (0th percentile); House Democrats (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.