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Sen. John F. “Jack” Reed’s 2019 Report Card

Senior Senator from Rhode Island
Democrat
Serving Jan 7, 1997 – Jan 3, 2027

These year-end statistics cover Reed’s record during the 2019 legislative year (Jan 3, 2019-Dec 31, 2019) and compare him to other senators serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 18, 2020.

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 Reed’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 least often compared to Senate Democrats

0 of Reed’s bills and resolutions in 2019 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 Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); Senate Democrats (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile).

 

Got the 5th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Senate Democrats

Reed’s bills and resolutions had 131 cosponsors in 2019. 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 Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); Senate Democrats (9th percentile); All Senators (26th percentile).

 

Ranked the 5th bottom/follower compared to Senate 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 2019 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Reed’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (12th percentile); Senate Democrats (9th percentile); All Senators (21st percentile).

 

Introduced the 6th fewest bills compared to Senate Democrats

Reed introduced 22 bills and resolutions in 2019. View Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (19th percentile); Senate Democrats (11th percentile); All Senators (22nd percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 7th least often compared to All Senators

Of the 305 bills that Reed cosponsored, 18% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (7th percentile); Senate Democrats (7th percentile); All Senators (6th percentile).

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

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 8th fewest bills compared to Senate Democrats

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 11 of Reed’s 22 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Reed caucused with in 2019.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (19th percentile); Senate Democrats (16th percentile); All Senators (23rd percentile).

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

Got bicameral support on the 8th fewest bills compared to Senate Democrats (tied with 3 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 7 of Reed’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the House. 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: S. 45: Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Wild and Scenic …; S. 266: Rebuild America’s Schools Act of …; S. 456: Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act …; S. 592: Cybersecurity Disclosure Act of 2019; S. 1854: Stronger Enforcement of Civil Penalties …; S. 2268: Stop Subsidizing Multimillion Dollar Corporate …; S. 2847: A bill to designate the …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (31st percentile); Senate Democrats (16th percentile); All Senators (36th percentile).

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

Ranked 12th most politically left compared to All Senators

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 2019 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Reed’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (12th percentile); Senate Democrats (22nd percentile); All Senators (11th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 11th least often compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 2 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Reed introduced 5 bills in 2019 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: S. 45: Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Wild and Scenic …; S. 1272: A bill to designate the …; S. 2997: Title VII Health Care Workforce …; S.Res. 168: A resolution designating April 2019 …; S.Res. 294: A resolution designating August 16, …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (24th percentile); Senate Democrats (36th percentile); All Senators (32nd percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Reed introduced 2 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2019. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. View Enacted Bills »

Those bills were: S. 45: Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Wild and Scenic …; S. 1272: A bill to designate the …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (33rd percentile); Senate Democrats (58th percentile); All Senators (51st 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.
 

Committee Positions

Reed held a leadership position on 1 committee and 1 subcommittee, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Reed’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (40th percentile); Senate Democrats (60th percentile); All Senators (67th percentile).

 

Bills Cosponsored

Reed cosponsored 305 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 Serving 10+ Years (67th percentile); Senate Democrats (33rd percentile); All Senators (67th percentile).

 

Missed Votes

Reed missed 0.7% of votes (3 of 428 votes) in 2019. View Reed’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (38th percentile); All Senators (30th 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 2019) was the 116th Congress (freshmen) or 115th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.