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Rep. John Conyers’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Michigan's 13th District
Democrat
Served Jan 3, 2013 – Dec 5, 2017

These year-end statistics cover Conyers’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 Conyers’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 most politically left compared to Michigan 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 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Conyers’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (2nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (4th percentile); House Democrats (5th percentile); Safe House Seats (2nd percentile); All Representatives (2nd percentile).

 

Was most absent in votes compared to Michigan Delegation

Conyers missed 7.1% of votes (50 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Conyers’s Profile »

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (93rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (90th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (87th percentile); Safe House Seats (90th percentile); All Representatives (91st 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 3rd most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)

12 of Conyers’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.Res. 550: Honoring the achievements of Berry …; H.R. 95: Protecting Employees and Retirees in …; H.R. 97: Protecting Employees and Retirees in …; H.R. 98: Preventing Termination of Utility Services …; H.R. 100: Stopping Abusive Student Loan Collection …; H.R. 101: Home Foreclosure Reduction Act of …; H.R. 676: Expanded & Improved Medicare For …; H.R. 1459: Democracy Restoration Act of 2015; H.R. 1832: Innovation Protection Act; H.R. 1933: End Racial Profiling Act of …; H.R. 2875: Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity …; H.R. 4266: Nurse and Health Care Worker …

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (93rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (97th percentile); House Democrats (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Got the 14th most cosponsors on their bills compared to House Democrats

Conyers’s bills and resolutions had 467 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 Michigan Delegation (93rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (85th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (86th percentile); House Democrats (93rd percentile); Safe House Seats (91st percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 16th most bills compared to All Representatives

Conyers cosponsored 405 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 Michigan Delegation (93rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (96th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (94th percentile); House Democrats (92nd percentile); Safe House Seats (96th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile).

 

Introduced the 15th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 3 others)

Conyers introduced 28 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (93rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (92nd percentile); House Democrats (95th percentile); Safe House Seats (95th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 25th least often compared to House Democrats

Of the 405 bills that Conyers cosponsored, 20% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (64th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (62nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (48th percentile); House Democrats (13th percentile); Safe House Seats (56th percentile); All Representatives (54th percentile).

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

Ranked the 26th top leader compared to House Democrats

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 Conyers’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (64th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (58th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (69th percentile); House Democrats (86th percentile); Safe House Seats (71st percentile); All Representatives (73rd percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 36th lowest % of bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)

Conyers tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 18% of Conyers’s 28 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (31st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (23rd percentile); House Democrats (27th percentile); Safe House Seats (20th percentile); All Representatives (18th percentile).

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

Laws Enacted

Conyers 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 Michigan Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (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.
 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Conyers introduced 0 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (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. 2 of Conyers’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. 1459: Democracy Restoration Act of 2015; H.R. 2714: Employ Young Americans Now Act

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (50th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (40th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (49th percentile); House Democrats (54th percentile); Safe House Seats (53rd percentile); All Representatives (55th percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Conyers 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 Conyers’s Profile »

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (71st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Democrats (89th percentile); Safe House Seats (87th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Conyers supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Conyers 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Conyers cosponsored H.R. 430: DISCLOSE 2015 Act; H.R. 20: Government By the People Act …

Compare to all Michigan Delegation (71st percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (68th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Democrats (31st percentile); Safe House Seats (62nd percentile); All Representatives (65th 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.