Rep. Eric Cantor’s 2013 Report Card

House Majority Leader
Representative from Virginia's 7^th District
Republican
Served Jan 3, 2001 – Aug 18, 2014

These year-end statistics cover Cantor’s record during the 2013 legislative year (Jan 3, 2013-Dec 26, 2013) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Dec 1, 2014. On Dec. 1, 2014, the statistics were updated to remove Sen. Schatz from the list of Senate sophomores. Schatz only served for several days in the preceding Congress.

Members of Congress with party leadership roles often do not participate in the legislative process in the same way as other Members of Congress. Since Cantor was busy being House Majority Leader, the metrics of legislative activity listed below may not apply.

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 Cantor’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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Bills Out of Committee

Powerful Cosponsors

Committee Positions

Working with the Senate

Missed Votes

Government Transparency

	Got the fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Virginia Delegation Cantor’s bills and resolutions had 0 cosponsors in 2013. 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 Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th percentile).

	Cosponsored the fewest bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other) Cantor cosponsored 0 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 Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th percentile).

	Introduced the fewest bills compared to Virginia Delegation (tied with 1 other) Cantor introduced 4 bills and resolutions in 2013. View Bills » Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (12^th percentile); House Republicans (13^th percentile); Safe House Seats (15^th percentile); All Representatives (14^th percentile).

	Laws Enacted Cantor introduced 0 bills that became law in 2013. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th percentile). We only count enacted bills (and joint resolutions) that the legislator was the primary sponsor of. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, such as through companion bills or 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. Cantor introduced 0 bills in 2013 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th percentile).

	Powerful Cosponsors 0 of Cantor’s bills and resolutions in 2013 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. Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th percentile).

	Working with the Senate The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 0 of Cantor’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. Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service.

	Committee Positions Cantor 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 Cantor’s Profile » Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th percentile).

	Missed Votes Cantor missed 3.1% of votes (20 of 641 votes) in 2013. View Cantor’s Profile » Compare to all Virginia Delegation (73^rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (49^th percentile); Safe House Seats (61^st percentile); All Representatives (63^rd percentile). The Speaker of the House is not included in this statistic because according to current House rules, the Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, and the delegates from the five island territories and the District of Columbia are also not included because they were not elligible to vote in any roll call votes.

	Government Transparency GovTrack looked at whether Cantor supported any of 12 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Cantor 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Compare to all Virginia Delegation (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th percentile).

Additional Notes

The Speaker’s Votes: Missed votes are not computed for the Speaker of the House. According to current House rules, the Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings.” In practice this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes but is not considered absent.

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 2013) was the 113^th Congress (freshmen) or 112^th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.