Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s 2015 Report Card
Representative
from Utah's 3rd District
Republican
Served Jan 6, 2009 – Jun 30, 2017
These year-end statistics cover Chaffetz’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 9, 2016.
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 Chaffetz’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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Supported government transparency the 2nd most often compared to House RepublicansGovTrack looked at whether Chaffetz supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Chaffetz 6 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Chaffetz sponsored H.R. 2395: Inspector General Empowerment Act of …; H.R. 1577: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac … Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (94th percentile); House Republicans (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (97th percentile); All Representatives (97th percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the 14th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 4 others)8 of Chaffetz’s bills and resolutions in 2015 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. 213: Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act …; H.R. 491: Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act; H.R. 707: Restoration of America’s Wire Act; H.R. 1153: Asylum Reform and Border Protection …; H.R. 1777: Presidential Allowance Modernization Act; H.R. 2395: Inspector General Empowerment Act of …; H.R. 2775: Remote Transactions Parity Act of …; H.R. 3871: Stingray Privacy Act of 2015 Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (83rd percentile); House Republicans (95th percentile); Safe House Seats (95th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 20th fewest bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)Chaffetz cosponsored 78 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 (9th percentile); House Republicans (6th percentile); Safe House Seats (5th percentile); All Representatives (4th percentile). |
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Got their bills out of committee the 18th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 7 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Chaffetz introduced 5 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 1153: Asylum Reform and Border Protection …; H.R. 1562: Contracting and Tax Accountability Act …; H.R. 1563: Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act …; H.R. 1777: Presidential Allowance Modernization Act; H.R. 2395: Inspector General Empowerment Act of … Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (79th percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); Safe House Seats (94th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile). |
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Introduced the 36th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)Chaffetz introduced 23 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (77th percentile); House Republicans (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (91st percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile). |
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Got the 58th most cosponsors on their bills compared to House RepublicansChaffetz’s bills and resolutions had 272 cosponsors in 2015. 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 (64th percentile); House Republicans (77th percentile); Safe House Seats (75th percentile); All Representatives (76th percentile). |
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Ranked 59th most politically left compared to House RepublicansOur 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 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Chaffetz’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (57th percentile); House Republicans (23rd percentile); Safe House Seats (57th percentile); All Representatives (57th percentile). |
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Ranked the 62nd top leader compared to All RepresentativesOur 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 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Chaffetz’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (75th percentile); House Republicans (77th percentile); Safe House Seats (85th percentile); All Representatives (86th percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 75th least often compared to All RepresentativesOf the 78 bills that Chaffetz cosponsored, 6% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (25th percentile); House Republicans (30th percentile); Safe House Seats (19th percentile); All Representatives (17th 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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Was 93rd most absent in votes compared to All Representatives (tied with 3 others)Chaffetz missed 4.3% of votes (30 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Chaffetz’s Profile » Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (75th percentile); Safe House Seats (76th percentile); All Representatives (78th 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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Laws EnactedChaffetz introduced 0 bills that became law in 2015. 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); House Republicans (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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Working with the SenateThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.R. 435: Disposal of Excess Federal Lands … Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (15th percentile); House Republicans (28th percentile); Safe House Seats (29th percentile); All Representatives (29th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Writing Bipartisan BillsChaffetz tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 35% of Chaffetz’s 23 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015. Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (53rd percentile); House Republicans (34th percentile); Safe House Seats (48th percentile); All Representatives (46th percentile). Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Committee PositionsChaffetz 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 Chaffetz’s Profile » Compare to all House Republicans (87th percentile); Safe House Seats (87th percentile); All Representatives (88th 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 2015) was the 114th Congress (freshmen) or 113th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.
