Rep. George Miller’s 2014 Report Card
Representative
from California's 11th District
Democrat
Served Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2015
These statistics cover Miller’s record during the 113th Congress (Jan 3, 2013-Jan 2, 2015) and compare him to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 12, 2015. Although Rep. Suzan DelBene [D-WA1], Rep. Thomas Massie [R-KY4], Rep. Donald Payne [D-NJ10], and Sen. Brian Schatz [D-HI] served in the 112th Congress, they took office within the last two months of the 112th Congress and here are grouped with other freshmen for the 113th Congress.
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 Miller’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 influential cosponsors the 2nd most often compared to All Representatives21 of Miller’s bills and resolutions in the 113th Congress 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. 50: Streamlined and Improved Methods at …; H.R. 691: Worker Protection Against Combustible Dust …; H.R. 1010: Fair Minimum Wage Act of …; H.R. 1328: Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Amendments …; H.R. 1373: Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety …; H.R. 1648: Protecting America’s Workers Act; H.R. 1649: Offshore Oil and Gas Worker …; H.R. 1893: Keeping All Students Safe Act; H.R. 1981: Stop Child Abuse in Residential …; H.R. 2083: Protecting Students from Sexual and …; H.R. 2560: Community College to Career Fund …; H.R. 2574: Keep Student Loans Affordable Act …; H.R. 2697: Airline Pilot Pension Fairness Act; H.R. 2721: Pathways Back to Work Act …; H.R. 2770: Pathways Back to Work Act …; H.R. 3461: Strong Start for America’s Children …; H.R. 4227: Fair Employment Protection Act of …; H.R. 4348: Transferring Credits for College Completion …; H.R. 4456: To determine the feasibility of …; H.R. 4714: CAMPUS Debit Cards Act; H.R. 5159: Schedules That Work Act Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (96th percentile); California Delegation (96th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Democrats (100th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile). |
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Was 2nd most absent in votes compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembsMiller missed 8.7% of votes (105 of 1,204 votes) in the 113th Congress. View Miller’s Profile » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (96th percentile); California Delegation (89th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (88th percentile); Safe House Seats (91st percentile); All Representatives (92nd 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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Got bicameral support on the 2nd most bills compared to California Delegation (tied with 1 other)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.R. 1010: Fair Minimum Wage Act of …; H.R. 2574: Keep Student Loans Affordable Act …; H.R. 2721: Pathways Back to Work Act …; H.R. 2770: Pathways Back to Work Act …; H.R. 2852: Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination …; H.R. 4227: Fair Employment Protection Act of … Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (93rd percentile); California Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (90th percentile); House Democrats (90th percentile); Safe House Seats (93rd percentile); All Representatives (92nd percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Ranked 5th most politically left compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembsOur 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 the 113th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Miller’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (9th percentile); California Delegation (28th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (16th percentile); House Democrats (24th percentile); Safe House Seats (12th percentile); All Representatives (11th percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 4th lowest % of bills compared to California Delegation (tied with 2 others)Miller tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 17% of Miller’s 30 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 113th Congress. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (10th percentile); California Delegation (9th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (16th percentile); House Democrats (14th percentile); Safe House Seats (15th percentile); All Representatives (13th percentile). Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Got the 10th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All RepresentativesMiller’s bills and resolutions had 1,017 cosponsors in the 113th Congress. 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 House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (93rd percentile); California Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); House Democrats (98th percentile); Safe House Seats (98th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile). |
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Ranked the 15th top leader compared to House DemocratsOur 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 the 113th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Miller’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (76th percentile); California Delegation (83rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (77th percentile); House Democrats (93rd percentile); Safe House Seats (78th percentile); All Representatives (78th percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 18th least often compared to House DemocratsOf the 266 bills that Miller cosponsored, 21% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (51st percentile); California Delegation (28th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (44th 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. |
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Introduced the 33rd most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 3 others)Miller introduced 30 bills and resolutions in the 113th Congress. View Bills » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (84th percentile); California Delegation (89th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (87th percentile); House Democrats (90th percentile); Safe House Seats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (92nd percentile). |
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Laws EnactedMiller introduced 0 bills that became law in the 113th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); California Delegation (0th percentile); 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. |
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Bills Out of CommitteeMost bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Miller introduced 1 bill in the 113th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 5699: John Muir National Historic Site … Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (31st percentile); California Delegation (57th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (42nd percentile); House Democrats (58th percentile); Safe House Seats (38th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile). |
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Committee PositionsMiller held a leadership position on 1 committee and 0 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Miller’s Profile » Compare to all California Delegation (87th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (76th percentile); House Democrats (90th percentile); Safe House Seats (89th percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile). |
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Bills CosponsoredMiller cosponsored 266 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 House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (62nd percentile); California Delegation (42nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (54th percentile); House Democrats (35th percentile); Safe House Seats (57th percentile); All Representatives (56th percentile). |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Miller supported any of 12 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Miller 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); California Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (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 the 113th Congress) was the 113th Congress (freshmen) or 112th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.
