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Rep. John Ratcliffe’s 2018 Report Card

Representative from Texas's 4th District
Republican
Served Jan 6, 2015 – May 22, 2020

These statistics cover Ratcliffe’s record during the 115th Congress (Jan 3, 2017-Jan 3, 2019) and compare him to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 20, 2019.

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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Was 6th most absent in votes compared to House Sophomores

Ratcliffe missed 6.7% of votes (81 of 1,210 votes) in the 115th Congress. View Ratcliffe’s Profile »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (86th percentile); House Sophomores (90th percentile); All Representatives (81st 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 21st most often compared to House Republicans (tied with 2 others)

8 of Ratcliffe’s bills and resolutions in the 115th 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. 75: ALERT Act of 2017; H.R. 76: Separation of Powers Restoration Act …; H.R. 239: Support for Rapid Innovation Act …; H.R. 240: Leveraging Emerging Technologies Act of …; H.R. 1616: Strengthening State and Local Cyber …; H.R. 5526: VOICES Act of 2018; H.R. 6443: Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation …; H.R. 7188: Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (86th percentile); House Sophomores (84th percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile).

 

Held the 48th most committee positions compared to All Representatives (tied with 12 others)

Ratcliffe 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. For comparison to other Members of Congress, we assigned a score giving five points for each full committee leadership position and one point for each subcommittee leadership position. View Ratcliffe’s Profile »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (75th percentile); House Sophomores (95th percentile); House Republicans (84th percentile); All Representatives (86th percentile).

 

Ranked 57th most politically right compared to All Representatives

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 the 115th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Ratcliffe’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (78th percentile); House Sophomores (79th percentile); House Republicans (76th percentile); All Representatives (87th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 91st least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 205 bills that Ratcliffe cosponsored, 11% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (31st percentile); House Sophomores (25th percentile); House Republicans (37th percentile); All Representatives (21st percentile).

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

Got their bills out of committee the 84th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 23 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Ratcliffe introduced 6 bills in the 115th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.Res. 814: Electing a Member to a …; H.R. 239: Support for Rapid Innovation Act …; H.R. 240: Leveraging Emerging Technologies Act of …; H.R. 1616: Strengthening State and Local Cyber …; H.R. 1842: Strengthening Children’s Safety Act of …; H.R. 6443: Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (69th percentile); House Sophomores (66th percentile); House Republicans (59th percentile); All Representatives (76th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Ratcliffe introduced 1 bill that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 115th 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. 1616: Strengthening State and Local Cyber …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (31st percentile); House Sophomores (31st percentile); House Republicans (22nd percentile); All Representatives (34th 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.
 

Bills Introduced

Ratcliffe introduced 17 bills and resolutions in the 115th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (56th percentile); House Sophomores (41st percentile); House Republicans (47th percentile); All Representatives (44th percentile).

 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 3 of Ratcliffe’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. 1616: Strengthening State and Local Cyber …; H.R. 3640: Department of Veterans Affairs Information …; H.R. 7326: Effective Prosecution of Possession of …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (58th percentile); House Sophomores (56th percentile); House Republicans (58th percentile); All Representatives (54th percentile).

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

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 6 of Ratcliffe’s 17 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Ratcliffe caucused with in the 115th Congress.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (31st percentile); House Sophomores (31st percentile); House Republicans (35th percentile); All Representatives (37th percentile).

Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic.
 

Bills Cosponsored

Ratcliffe cosponsored 205 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 (44th percentile); House Sophomores (31st percentile); House Republicans (52nd percentile); All Representatives (31st percentile).

 

Cosponsors

Ratcliffe’s bills and resolutions had 193 cosponsors in the 115th 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 (53rd percentile); House Sophomores (49th percentile); House Republicans (50th percentile); All Representatives (43rd 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 the 115th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Ratcliffe’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (67th percentile); House Sophomores (70th percentile); House Republicans (61st percentile); All Representatives (68th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Ratcliffe supported any of 32 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Ratcliffe 3 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Ratcliffe cosponsored H.R. 24: Federal Reserve Transparency Act of …; H.R. 522: Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act …; H.R. 732: Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (78th percentile); House Sophomores (57th percentile); House Republicans (70th percentile); All Representatives (68th 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 115th Congress) was the 115th Congress (freshmen) or 114th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.