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Rep. Henry C. “Hank” Johnson’s 2017 Report Card

Representative from Georgia's 4th District
Democrat
Serving Jan 4, 2007 – Jan 3, 2025

These year-end statistics cover Johnson’s record during the 2017 legislative year (Jan 3, 2017-Dec 31, 2017) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 6, 2018.

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 Johnson’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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Cosponsored the most bills compared to Georgia Delegation

Johnson cosponsored 321 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 Georgia Delegation (93rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (83rd percentile); House Democrats (73rd percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile).

 

Got the most cosponsors on their bills compared to Georgia Delegation

Johnson’s bills and resolutions had 447 cosponsors in 2017. 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 Georgia Delegation (93rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (81st percentile); House Democrats (86th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile).

 

Supported government transparency the most often compared to Georgia Delegation

GovTrack looked at whether Johnson supported any of 21 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Johnson 3 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Johnson cosponsored H.R. 3462: Office of Government Ethics Independence …; H.R. 4396: ME TOO Congress Act; H.Res. 630: Requiring each Member, officer, and …

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (93rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (84th percentile); House Democrats (73rd percentile); All Representatives (79th percentile).

 

Ranked 2nd most politically left compared to Georgia Delegation

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 2017 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Johnson’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (7th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (27th percentile); House Democrats (42nd percentile); All Representatives (19th percentile).

 

Ranked the 2nd top leader compared to Georgia Delegation

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 2017 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Johnson’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (86th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (70th percentile); House Democrats (82nd percentile); All Representatives (73rd percentile).

 

Introduced the 3rd most bills compared to Georgia Delegation

Johnson introduced 15 bills and resolutions in 2017. View Bills »

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (79th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (62nd percentile); House Democrats (65th percentile); All Representatives (67th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 3rd most often compared to Georgia Delegation

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 321 bills that Johnson cosponsored, 24% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (79th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (54th percentile); House Democrats (29th percentile); All Representatives (62nd percentile).

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

Was 3rd most absent in votes compared to Georgia Delegation

Johnson missed 3.7% of votes (26 of 710 votes) in 2017. View Johnson’s Profile »

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (79th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (70th percentile); All Representatives (77th 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.
 

Got influential cosponsors the 33rd most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 24 others)

5 of Johnson’s bills and resolutions in 2017 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. 1299: Berta Caceres Human Rights in …; H.R. 1374: Arbitration Fairness Act of 2017; H.R. 1907: Election Infrastructure and Security Promotion …; H.R. 3132: Restoring Confidence in America’s Elections …; H.R. 3664: To amend the Omnibus Crime …

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (86th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (83rd percentile); House Democrats (86th percentile); All Representatives (87th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Johnson introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2017. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (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.
 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Johnson introduced 0 bills in 2017 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

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

 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 1 of Johnson’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. 1374: Arbitration Fairness Act of 2017

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (50th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (22nd percentile); House Democrats (29th percentile); All Representatives (28th percentile).

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

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 3 of Johnson’s 15 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2017.

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (57th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (40th percentile); House Democrats (41st percentile); All Representatives (37th percentile).

 

Committee Positions

Johnson 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 Johnson’s Profile »

Compare to all Georgia Delegation (36th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (20th percentile); House Democrats (40th percentile); All Representatives (39th 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 2017) was the 115th Congress (freshmen) or 114th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.