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Rep. Janice “Jan” Schakowsky’s 2020 Report Card

Representative from Illinois's 9th District
Democrat
Serving Jan 6, 1999 – Jan 3, 2025

These statistics cover Schakowsky’s record during the 116th Congress (Jan 3, 2019-Jan 3, 2021) and compare her to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 30, 2021.

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 Schakowsky’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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Ranked 5th most politically left compared to All Representatives

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 the 116th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Schakowsky’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (6th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (1st percentile); House Democrats (2nd percentile); All Representatives (1st percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 6th most bills compared to All Representatives

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 18 of Schakowsky’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.Res. 70: Recognizing the roles and the …; H.Res. 807: Recognizing the roles and the …; H.R. 875: Safeguard American Food Exports Act …; H.R. 961: Safeguard American Food Exports Act …; H.R. 2085: CHOICE Act; H.R. 2150: Home Health Care Planning Improvement …; H.R. 2211: STURDY Act; H.R. 2581: Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital …; H.R. 3145: PARK IT Act; H.R. 3170: Safe Cribs Act of 2019; H.R. 3240: Public Engagement at FERC Act; H.R. 3605: Protecting American Consumers from Robocalls …; H.R. 4064: Eleanor Smith Inclusive Home Design …; H.R. 4769: Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and …; H.R. 5991: Part-Time Worker Bill of Rights …; H.R. 6650: Health Heroes 2020 Act; H.R. 6698: Quality Care for Nursing Home …; H.R. 7943: Mentoring to Succeed Act of …

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Democrats (98th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

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

Ranked the 6th top leader compared to All Representatives

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 the 116th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Schakowsky’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (97th percentile); House Democrats (97th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Got the 7th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives

Schakowsky’s bills and resolutions had 1,818 cosponsors in the 116th 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 Illinois Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (96th percentile); House Democrats (97th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 10th most bills compared to All Representatives

Schakowsky cosponsored 1,119 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 Illinois Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (96th percentile); House Democrats (96th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 10th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 7 others)

16 of Schakowsky’s bills and resolutions in the 116th 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.Res. 871: Expressing the sense of the …; H.R. 961: Safeguard American Food Exports Act …; H.R. 1948: Lymphedema Treatment Act of 2019; H.R. 2150: Home Health Care Planning Improvement …; H.R. 2211: STURDY Act; H.R. 2581: Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital …; H.R. 2781: EMPOWER for Health Act of …; H.R. 3604: Safe Hydration is an American …; H.R. 4296: Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care …; H.R. 5216: Quality Care for Nursing Home …; H.R. 5267: International Violence Against Women Act …; H.R. 6472: COVID–19 Price Gouging Prevention Act; H.R. 6487: ACCESS Act; H.R. 6698: Quality Care for Nursing Home …; H.R. 7816: Abortion is Health Care Everywhere …; H.Con.Res. 119: Recognizing that the climate crisis …

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (89th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (92nd percentile); House Democrats (94th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 20th least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 1119 bills that Schakowsky cosponsored, 5% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (6th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (5th percentile); House Democrats (8th percentile); All Representatives (4th percentile).

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

Introduced the 22nd most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 4 others)

Schakowsky introduced 53 bills and resolutions in the 116th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (89th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); House Democrats (90th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

 

Was 48th most present in votes compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 1 other)

Schakowsky missed 1.4% of votes (13 of 954 votes) in the 116th Congress. View Schakowsky’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (39th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (25th percentile); All Representatives (33rd 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.
 

Laws Enacted

Schakowsky introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 116th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all Illinois 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. Schakowsky introduced 5 bills in the 116th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 2211: STURDY Act; H.R. 2296: More Efficient Tools to Realize …; H.R. 2781: EMPOWER for Health Act of …; H.R. 3170: Safe Cribs Act of 2019; H.R. 8134: Consumer Product Safety Inspection Enhancement …

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (61st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (66th percentile); House Democrats (53rd percentile); All Representatives (71st percentile).

 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 15 of Schakowsky’s 53 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Schakowsky caucused with in the 116th Congress.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (39th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Democrats (60th percentile); All Representatives (73rd percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Schakowsky 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 Schakowsky’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (39th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (19th percentile); House Democrats (40th percentile); All Representatives (42nd 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 116th Congress) 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.