skip to main content
Hide All The Ads With a Yearly Membership Subscribe ▶

Rep. John Katko’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from New York's 24th District
Republican
Served Jan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2023

These year-end statistics cover Katko’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 Katko’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.

Jump to...

 

Introduced the most bills compared to House Freshmen

Katko introduced 16 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all New York Delegation (67th percentile); Competitive House Seats (82nd percentile); House Freshmen (98th percentile); House Republicans (79th percentile); All Representatives (79th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the most often compared to Competitive House Seats

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Katko introduced 5 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 455: Northern Border Security Review Act; H.R. 2750: Improved Security Vetting for Aviation …; H.R. 2843: TSA PreCheck Expansion Act; H.R. 3102: Airport Access Control Security Improvement …; H.R. 3584: Transportation Security Administration Reform and …

Compare to all New York Delegation (96th percentile); Competitive House Seats (98th percentile); House Freshmen (97th percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

 

Wrote the most laws compared to House Freshmen (tied with 1 other)

Katko introduced 2 bills 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. 719: Continuing Appropriations Act, 2016; H.R. 720: Gerardo Hernandez Airport Security Act …

Compare to all New York Delegation (96th percentile); Competitive House Seats (96th percentile); House Freshmen (97th percentile); House Republicans (95th percentile); All Representatives (97th 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.
 

Got influential cosponsors the most often compared to House Freshmen (tied with 1 other)

7 of Katko’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. 455: Northern Border Security Review Act; H.R. 719: Continuing Appropriations Act, 2016; H.R. 720: Gerardo Hernandez Airport Security Act …; H.R. 2750: Improved Security Vetting for Aviation …; H.R. 2843: TSA PreCheck Expansion Act; H.R. 3102: Airport Access Control Security Improvement …; H.R. 3584: Transportation Security Administration Reform and …

Compare to all New York Delegation (93rd percentile); Competitive House Seats (96th percentile); House Freshmen (97th percentile); House Republicans (92nd percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

 

Was 6th most present in votes compared to New York Delegation

Katko missed 0.9% of votes (6 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Katko’s Profile »

Compare to all New York Delegation (19th percentile); Competitive House Seats (29th percentile); House Freshmen (44th percentile); All Representatives (25th 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.
 

Cosponsored the 7th fewest bills compared to New York Delegation

Katko cosponsored 162 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 New York Delegation (22nd percentile); Competitive House Seats (45th percentile); House Freshmen (64th percentile); House Republicans (61st percentile); All Representatives (44th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 17th most often compared to House Republicans

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 162 bills that Katko cosponsored, 23% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all New York Delegation (37th percentile); Competitive House Seats (53rd percentile); House Freshmen (69th percentile); House Republicans (93rd percentile); All Representatives (63rd percentile).

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

Ranked 21st most politically left compared to House Republicans

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 Katko’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all New York Delegation (81st percentile); Competitive House Seats (38th percentile); House Freshmen (39th percentile); House Republicans (8th percentile); All Representatives (48th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 21st highest % of bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 63% of Katko’s 16 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all House Freshmen (63rd percentile); New York Delegation (72nd percentile); Competitive House Seats (65th percentile); House Republicans (83rd percentile); All Representatives (89th percentile).

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

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 1 of Katko’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. 4229: Protecting Our Youth from Dangerous …

Compare to all New York Delegation (33rd percentile); Competitive House Seats (35th percentile); House Freshmen (55th percentile); House Republicans (28th percentile); All Representatives (29th percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Katko 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 Katko’s Profile »

Compare to all New York Delegation (37th percentile); Competitive House Seats (53rd percentile); House Freshmen (56th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Cosponsors

Katko’s bills and resolutions had 82 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 New York Delegation (30th percentile); Competitive House Seats (44th percentile); House Freshmen (70th percentile); House Republicans (35th percentile); All Representatives (35th percentile).

 

Leadership Score

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 Katko’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all New York Delegation (37th percentile); Competitive House Seats (42nd percentile); House Freshmen (61st percentile); House Republicans (28th percentile); All Representatives (36th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Katko supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Katko 1 point, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Katko cosponsored H.R. 1615: DHS FOIA Efficiency Act of …

Compare to all New York Delegation (33rd percentile); Competitive House Seats (56th percentile); House Freshmen (42nd percentile); House Republicans (69th percentile); All Representatives (43rd 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.