Sen. Joe Manchin’s 2015 Report Card
Senior
Senator
from West Virginia
Democrat
Serving Nov 15, 2010 – Jan 3, 2025
These year-end statistics cover Manchin’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare him to other senators 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 Manchin’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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Joined bipartisan bills the most often compared to All SenatorsIn this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 142 bills that Manchin cosponsored, 61% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Senate Democrats (98th percentile); All Senators (99th 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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Ranked 2nd most politically right compared to Senate DemocratsOur 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 Manchin’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Senate Democrats (95th percentile); All Senators (45th percentile). |
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Introduced the 4th fewest bills compared to Senate DemocratsManchin introduced 13 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all Senate Democrats (7th percentile); All Senators (18th percentile). |
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Got the 5th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Senate DemocratsManchin’s bills and resolutions had 54 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 Senate Democrats (9th percentile); All Senators (17th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 6th fewest bills compared to Senate DemocratsManchin cosponsored 142 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 (11th percentile); All Senators (36th percentile). |
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Ranked the 6th bottom/follower compared to Senate DemocratsOur 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 Manchin’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Senate Democrats (11th percentile); All Senators (18th percentile). |
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Got bicameral support on the 7th fewest bills compared to Senate DemocratsThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: S. 327: Audit the Pentagon Act of …; S. 688: Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the …; S.Con.Res. 13: A concurrent resolution authorizing the … Compare to all Senate Democrats (14th percentile); All Senators (17th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 10th highest % of bills compared to Senate Democrats (tied with 1 other)In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 38% of Manchin’s 13 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015. Compare to all Senate Democrats (75th percentile); All Senators (68th percentile). Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Supported government transparency the 11th least often compared to Senate Democrats (tied with 7 others)GovTrack looked at whether Manchin supported any of 19 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave Manchin 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Manchin cosponsored S. 229: Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting …; S. 366: Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act Compare to all Senate Democrats (23rd percentile); All Senators (52nd percentile). |
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Laws EnactedManchin 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 Senate Democrats (0th percentile); All Senators (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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Bills Out of CommitteeMost bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Manchin introduced 0 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Compare to all Senate Democrats (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile). |
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Powerful Cosponsors0 of Manchin’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. Compare to all Senate Democrats (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile). |
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Committee PositionsManchin held a leadership position on 0 committees and 2 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Manchin’s Profile » Compare to all Senate Democrats (18th percentile); All Senators (21st percentile). |
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Missed VotesManchin missed 1.5% of votes (5 of 339 votes) in 2015. View Manchin’s Profile » Compare to all All Senators (56th 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.
