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Sen. Harry Reid’s 2013 Report Card

Senate Minority Leader
Senior Senator from Nevada
Democrat
Served Jan 6, 1987 – Jan 3, 2017

These year-end statistics cover Reid’s record during the 2013 legislative year (Jan 3, 2013-Dec 26, 2013) and compare him to other senators 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 Reid was busy being Senate Minority 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 Reid’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 bipartisan cosponsors on the lowest % of bills compared to Senate Democrats

Reid tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 7% of Reid’s 57 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2013.

Compare to all Senate Democrats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (2nd percentile); All Senators (3rd percentile).

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

Held the fewest committee positions compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 1 other)

Reid 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. For comparison to other Members of Congress, we assigned a score giving five points for each full committee leadership position and one point for each subcommittee leadership position. View Reid’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Democrats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile).

 

Ranked the 2nd top leader compared to All Senators

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 2013 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Reid’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Democrats (96th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (96th percentile); All Senators (98th percentile).

 

Introduced the 3rd most bills compared to All Senators

Reid introduced 57 bills and resolutions in 2013. View Bills »

Compare to all Senate Democrats (96th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); All Senators (97th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 3rd fewest bills compared to All Senators

Reid cosponsored 48 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 Senate Democrats (2nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (2nd percentile); All Senators (2nd percentile).

 

Got the 5th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Senators

Reid’s bills and resolutions had 339 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 Senate Democrats (91st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); All Senators (95th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 6th most often compared to Senate Democrats

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 48 bills that Reid cosponsored, 29% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Senate Democrats (88th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (53rd percentile); All Senators (59th percentile).

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

Got influential cosponsors the 7th most often compared to All Senators (tied with 1 other)

7 of Reid’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.

Those bills were: S. 1: Immigration Reform that Works for …; S. 2: Sandy Hook Elementary School Violence …; S. 3: Strengthen our Schools and Students …; S. 5: A bill to reauthorize the …; S. 6: Putting Our Veterans Back to …; S. 9: Clean and Fair Elections Act; S. 10: Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs …

Compare to all Senate Democrats (87th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (88th percentile); All Senators (92nd percentile).

 

Ranked 11th most politically right compared to Senate Democrats

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 2013 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Reid’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Democrats (79th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); All Senators (44th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 11th most often compared to All Senators (tied with 3 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Reid introduced 7 bills in 2013 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: S. 6: Putting Our Veterans Back to …; S. 342: Pine Forest Range Recreation Enhancement …; S. 649: Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act …; S. 788: A bill to suspend the …; S. 974: Las Vegas Valley Public Land …; S. 1569: Default Prevention Act of 2013; S. 1859: Tax Extenders Act of 2013

Compare to all Senate Democrats (81st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (80th percentile); All Senators (86th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Reid introduced 1 bill that became law in 2013. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. View Enacted Bills »

Those bills were: S. 716: A bill to modify the …

Compare to all Senate Democrats (85th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (75th percentile); All Senators (86th 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.
 

Working with the House

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 4 of Reid’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the House. 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: S. 6: Putting Our Veterans Back to …; S. 974: Las Vegas Valley Public Land …; S. 1569: Default Prevention Act of 2013; S. 1818: Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe - …

Compare to all Senate Democrats (30th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (27th percentile); All Senators (37th percentile).

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

Missed Votes

Reid missed 2.7% of votes (8 of 291 votes) in 2013. View Reid’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (64th percentile); All Senators (67th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Reid supported any of 8 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave Reid 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all Senate Democrats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); All Senators (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 2013) 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.