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Rep. Gus Bilirakis’s 2019 Report Card

Representative from Florida's 12th District
Republican
Serving Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2025


These year-end statistics cover Bilirakis’s record during the 2019 legislative year (Jan 3, 2019-Dec 31, 2019) and compare him 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 Bilirakis’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.

 

Ranked 11th most politically right compared to Serving 10+ Years

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 2019 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Bilirakis’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Florida Delegation (74th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); House Republicans (78th percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).


 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 17th most bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 4 others)

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 11 of Bilirakis’s 16 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Bilirakis caucused with in 2019.

Compare to all Florida Delegation (78th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (68th percentile); House Republicans (89th percentile); All Representatives (78th percentile).

Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic.


 

Cosponsored the 20th most bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 1 other)

Bilirakis cosponsored 236 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 Florida Delegation (44th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (42nd percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); All Representatives (51st percentile).


 

Introduced the 31st most bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 6 others)

Bilirakis introduced 16 bills and resolutions in 2019. View Bills »

Compare to all Florida Delegation (56th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (53rd percentile); House Republicans (82nd percentile); All Representatives (64th percentile).


 

Got influential cosponsors the 28th most often compared to House Republicans (tied with 16 others)

3 of Bilirakis’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. 303: Retired Pay Restoration Act; H.R. 2221: Fry Scholarship Improvement Act of …; H.R. 3504: Ryan Kules Specially Adaptive Housing …

Compare to all Florida Delegation (56th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); House Republicans (78th percentile); All Representatives (59th percentile).


 

Joined bipartisan bills the 39th 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 236 bills that Bilirakis cosponsored, 57% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Florida Delegation (85th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); House Republicans (80th percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile).

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


 

Got their bills out of committee the 36th least often compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 18 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Bilirakis introduced 1 bill in 2019 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 3504: Ryan Kules Specially Adaptive Housing …

Compare to all Florida Delegation (26th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (23rd percentile); House Republicans (41st percentile); All Representatives (26th percentile).


 

Ranked the 46th top leader compared to House Republicans

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 2019 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Bilirakis’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Florida Delegation (59th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (38th percentile); House Republicans (77th percentile); All Representatives (53rd percentile).


 

Laws Enacted

Bilirakis introduced 0 bills 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.

Compare to all Florida Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th 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.


 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 2 of Bilirakis’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. 3462: SHELTER Act; H.R. 3613: State Accountability, Flexibility, and Equity …

Compare to all Florida Delegation (48th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (34th percentile); House Republicans (63rd percentile); All Representatives (46th percentile).

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


 

Committee Positions

Bilirakis 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 Bilirakis’s Profile »

Compare to all Florida Delegation (48th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (14th percentile); House Republicans (44th percentile); All Representatives (42nd percentile).


 

Cosponsors

Bilirakis’s bills and resolutions had 145 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 Florida Delegation (48th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (34th percentile); House Republicans (68th percentile); All Representatives (47th percentile).


 

Missed Votes

Bilirakis missed 3.4% of votes (24 of 701 votes) in 2019. View Bilirakis’s Profile »

Compare to all Florida Delegation (56th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (74th percentile); All Representatives (73rd 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.


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.