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Rep. Jeff Fortenberry’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Nebraska's 1st District
Republican
Served Jan 4, 2005 – Mar 31, 2022

These year-end statistics cover Fortenberry’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 Fortenberry’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 the 11th 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 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Fortenberry’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (96th percentile); House Republicans (96th percentile); Safe House Seats (97th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile).

 

Got the 24th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives

Fortenberry’s bills and resolutions had 554 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 Serving 10+ Years (92nd percentile); House Republicans (95th percentile); Safe House Seats (94th percentile); All Representatives (95th percentile).

 

Ranked 35th 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 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Fortenberry’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (79th percentile); House Republicans (43rd percentile); Safe House Seats (66th percentile); All Representatives (68th percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 40th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 26 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 4 of Fortenberry’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. 893: Boys Town Centennial Commemorative Coin …; H.R. 984: To amend the National Trails …; H.R. 1061: Farm to School Act of …; H.R. 3248: VET Act of 2015

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (84th percentile); House Republicans (85th percentile); Safe House Seats (84th percentile); All Representatives (85th percentile).

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

Laws Enacted

Fortenberry introduced 1 bill that became law in 2015. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. View Enacted Bills »

Those bills were: H.R. 893: Boys Town Centennial Commemorative Coin …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Republicans (79th percentile); Safe House Seats (82nd percentile); All Representatives (82nd 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.
 

Bills Introduced

Fortenberry introduced 13 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (56th percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); Safe House Seats (64th percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile).

 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Fortenberry introduced 1 bill in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 984: To amend the National Trails …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); House Republicans (31st percentile); Safe House Seats (45th percentile); All Representatives (46th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

3 of Fortenberry’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. 893: Boys Town Centennial Commemorative Coin …; H.R. 1061: Farm to School Act of …; H.Con.Res. 75: Expressing the sense of Congress …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (54th percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); Safe House Seats (61st percentile); All Representatives (62nd percentile).

 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

Fortenberry tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 38% of Fortenberry’s 13 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (61st percentile); House Republicans (37th percentile); Safe House Seats (55th percentile); All Representatives (53rd percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Fortenberry 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 Fortenberry’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (36th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Bills Cosponsored

Fortenberry cosponsored 146 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 Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Republicans (49th percentile); Safe House Seats (34th percentile); All Representatives (34th percentile).

 

Joining Bipartisan Bills

Of the 146 bills that Fortenberry cosponsored, 14% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (34th percentile); House Republicans (74th percentile); Safe House Seats (44th percentile); All Representatives (42nd percentile).

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

Missed Votes

Fortenberry missed 2.1% of votes (15 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Fortenberry’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); Safe House Seats (53rd percentile); All Representatives (55th 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.
 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Fortenberry supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Fortenberry 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

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