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Rep. John Shimkus’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Illinois's 15th District
Republican
Served Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2021

These year-end statistics cover Shimkus’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 Shimkus’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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Cosponsored the 2nd fewest bills compared to Illinois Delegation

Shimkus cosponsored 103 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 Illinois Delegation (6th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Republicans (20th percentile); Safe House Seats (15th percentile); All Representatives (14th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 2nd most often compared to Illinois Delegation (tied with 1 other)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Shimkus introduced 2 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 805: Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight …; H.R. 2576: TSCA Modernization Act of 2015

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (83rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (72nd percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); Safe House Seats (77th percentile); All Representatives (78th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 2nd most often compared to Illinois Delegation (tied with 1 other)

4 of Shimkus’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. 805: Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight …; H.R. 2576: TSCA Modernization Act of 2015; H.R. 2629: Antibiotic Development to Advance Patient …; H.R. 3148: To exempt application of JSA …

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (83rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (69th percentile); House Republicans (75th percentile); Safe House Seats (75th percentile); All Representatives (76th percentile).

 

Was 2nd most present in votes compared to Illinois Delegation (tied with 2 others)

Shimkus missed 0.7% of votes (5 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Shimkus’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (6th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); Safe House Seats (21st percentile); All Representatives (21st 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.
 

Joined bipartisan bills the 5th least often compared to Illinois Delegation

Of the 103 bills that Shimkus cosponsored, 11% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (22nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (23rd percentile); House Republicans (57th percentile); Safe House Seats (34th percentile); All Representatives (32nd 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 15th lowest % of bills compared to House Republicans

Shimkus tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 21% of Shimkus’s 14 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (32nd percentile); House Republicans (13th percentile); Safe House Seats (24th percentile); All Representatives (22nd percentile).

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

Ranked 38th most politically right compared to Serving 10+ Years

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 Shimkus’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (72nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Republicans (40th percentile); Safe House Seats (65th percentile); All Representatives (66th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Shimkus 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 Illinois Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (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 Introduced

Shimkus introduced 14 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (67th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Republicans (73rd percentile); Safe House Seats (69th percentile); All Representatives (70th 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 Shimkus’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. 2342: Physical Therapist Workforce and Patient …; H.R. 3148: To exempt application of JSA …

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (56th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (49th percentile); House Republicans (55th 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

Shimkus 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 Shimkus’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (50th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (36th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Cosponsors

Shimkus’s bills and resolutions had 110 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 Illinois Delegation (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (38th percentile); House Republicans (44th percentile); Safe House Seats (44th percentile); All Representatives (44th 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 Shimkus’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (50th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (44th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (46th percentile); All Representatives (48th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Shimkus supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Shimkus 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th 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.