Rep. John Ratcliffe’s 2016 Report Card
Representative
from Texas's 4th District
Republican
Served Jan 6, 2015 – May 22, 2020
These statistics cover Ratcliffe’s record during the 114th Congress (Jan 6, 2015-Jan 3, 2017) and compare him to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Aug 24, 2017. The statistics were updated on Jan 20, 2017 and Aug 24, 2017 to improve how we counted enacted laws. Originally published on Jan 7, 2017.
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 Ratcliffe’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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Got influential cosponsors the 3rd most often compared to House Freshmen10 of Ratcliffe’s bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress 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. 1637: Federally Funded Research and Development …; H.R. 1759: ALERT Act of 2015; H.R. 3118: To eliminate the Bureau of …; H.R. 3490: Strengthening State and Local Cyber …; H.R. 3578: DHS Science and Technology Reform …; H.R. 4768: Separation of Powers Restoration Act …; H.R. 5388: Support for Rapid Innovation Act …; H.R. 5389: Leveraging Emerging Technologies Act of …; H.R. 5877: United States-Israel Advanced Research Partnership …; H.R. 6034: Classified Information Protection Act of … Compare to all Texas Delegation (89th percentile); House Freshmen (95th percentile); House Republicans (92nd percentile); All Representatives (92nd percentile). |
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Was 4th most present in votes compared to Texas Delegation (tied with 1 other)Ratcliffe missed 0.6% of votes (8 of 1,325 votes) in the 114th Congress. View Ratcliffe’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (8th percentile); House Freshmen (22nd percentile); All Representatives (9th 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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Ranked the 5th top leader compared to House FreshmenOur 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 the 114th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Ratcliffe’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (69th percentile); House Freshmen (92nd percentile); House Republicans (70th percentile); All Representatives (79th percentile). |
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Got the 8th most cosponsors on their bills compared to House FreshmenRatcliffe’s bills and resolutions had 314 cosponsors in the 114th Congress. 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 Texas Delegation (58th percentile); House Freshmen (88th percentile); House Republicans (69th percentile); All Representatives (66th percentile). |
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Got bicameral support on the 6th most bills compared to House Freshmen (tied with 6 others)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.R. 4768: Separation of Powers Restoration Act …; H.J.Res. 67: Disapproving a rule submitted by …; H.J.Res. 68: Disapproving a rule submitted by … Compare to all Texas Delegation (64th percentile); House Freshmen (82nd percentile); House Republicans (62nd percentile); All Representatives (59th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Introduced the 11th most bills compared to House Freshmen (tied with 3 others)Ratcliffe introduced 18 bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress. View Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (61st percentile); House Freshmen (79th percentile); House Republicans (62nd percentile); All Representatives (59th percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 20th least often compared to All RepresentativesOf the 199 bills that Ratcliffe cosponsored, 5% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (19th percentile); House Freshmen (8th percentile); House Republicans (7th percentile); All Representatives (4th 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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Got their bills out of committee the 21st most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 4 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Ratcliffe introduced 8 bills in the 114th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 1637: Federally Funded Research and Development …; H.R. 1759: ALERT Act of 2015; H.R. 3490: Strengthening State and Local Cyber …; H.R. 3578: DHS Science and Technology Reform …; H.R. 4768: Separation of Powers Restoration Act …; H.R. 5388: Support for Rapid Innovation Act …; H.R. 5389: Leveraging Emerging Technologies Act of …; H.R. 5877: United States-Israel Advanced Research Partnership … Compare to all Texas Delegation (83rd percentile); House Freshmen (94th percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile). |
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Ranked 84th most politically right compared to All RepresentativesOur 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 the 114th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Ratcliffe’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (56th percentile); House Freshmen (77th percentile); House Republicans (66th percentile); All Representatives (81st percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 108th fewest bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)Ratcliffe cosponsored 199 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 Texas Delegation (25th percentile); House Freshmen (39th percentile); House Republicans (37th percentile); All Representatives (24th percentile). |
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Laws EnactedRatcliffe introduced 1 bill that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 114th Congress. 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. 5877: United States-Israel Advanced Research Partnership … Compare to all Texas Delegation (44th percentile); House Freshmen (44th percentile); House Republicans (45th percentile); All Representatives (49th percentile). The legislator must be the primary sponsor of the bill or joint resolution that was enacted or the primary sponsor of a bill or joint resolution for which at least about one third of its text was incorporated into another bill or joint resolution that was enacted as law, as determined by an automated analysis. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively. We also exclude bills where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill. |
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Writing Bipartisan BillsIn this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 4 of Ratcliffe’s 18 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 114th Congress. Compare to all Texas Delegation (33rd percentile); House Freshmen (44th percentile); House Republicans (31st percentile); All Representatives (33rd percentile). |
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Committee PositionsRatcliffe 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 Ratcliffe’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (22nd percentile); House Freshmen (56th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); All Representatives (39th percentile). |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Ratcliffe supported any of 40 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Ratcliffe 1 point, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Ratcliffe cosponsored H.R. 1615: DHS FOIA Efficiency Act of … Compare to all Texas Delegation (42nd percentile); House Freshmen (35th percentile); House Republicans (51st percentile); All Representatives (31st 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 the 114th Congress) 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.
