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Sen. John Thune’s 2019 Report Card

Senate Minority Whip
Senior Senator from South Dakota
Republican
Serving Jan 4, 2005 – Jan 3, 2029

These year-end statistics cover Thune’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.

Members of Congress with party leadership roles often do not participate in the legislative process in the same way as other Members of Congress. Since Thune was busy being Senate Minority Whip, the metrics of legislative activity listed below may not apply.

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 Thune’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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Introduced the fewest bills compared to Senate Party Leaders (tied with 1 other)

Thune introduced 23 bills and resolutions in 2019. View Bills »

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (21st percentile); Senate Republicans (30th percentile); All Senators (23rd percentile).

 

Held the 3rd fewest committee positions compared to Senate Party Leaders (tied with 2 others)

Thune 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 Thune’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (17th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (7th percentile); Senate Republicans (23rd percentile); All Senators (20th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 4th fewest bills compared to Senate Party Leaders (tied with 1 other)

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 16 of Thune’s 23 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Thune caucused with in 2019.

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (48th percentile); Senate Republicans (55th percentile); All Senators (50th percentile).

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

Cosponsored the 7th fewest bills compared to All Senators

Thune cosponsored 86 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 Senate Party Leaders (8th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (7th percentile); Senate Republicans (11th percentile); All Senators (6th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 8th least often compared to Senate Republicans

Of the 86 bills that Thune cosponsored, 20% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (17th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); Senate Republicans (13th percentile); All Senators (15th percentile).

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

Ranked 9th 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 2019 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Thune’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (58th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (79th percentile); Senate Republicans (40th percentile); All Senators (68th percentile).

 

Got the 12th most cosponsors on their bills compared to Senate Republicans

Thune’s bills and resolutions had 251 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 Senate Party Leaders (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); Senate Republicans (77th percentile); All Senators (60th percentile).

 

Ranked the 12th top leader compared to Senate Republicans

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 Thune’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (42nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (60th percentile); Senate Republicans (77th percentile); All Senators (74th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Thune 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. 100: Custer County Airport Conveyance Act; S. 151: Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal …

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (42nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (33rd percentile); Senate Republicans (45th 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.
 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Thune introduced 6 bills in 2019 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: S. 21: Pay Our Coast Guard Act; S. 100: Custer County Airport Conveyance Act; S. 151: Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal …; S. 279: Tribal School Federal Insurance Parity …; S. 1349: Secure Traveler Act; S. 2597: LEGEND Act of 2019

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (31st percentile); Senate Republicans (38th percentile); All Senators (44th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

5 of Thune’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.

Those bills were: S. 151: Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal …; S. 215: Death Tax Repeal Act of …; S. 279: Tribal School Federal Insurance Parity …; S. 765: Digital Goods and Services Tax …; S. 1475: Charities Helping Americans Regularly Throughout …

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (42nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (43rd percentile); Senate Republicans (58th percentile); All Senators (52nd percentile).

 

Working with the House

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 8 of Thune’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. 151: Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal …; S. 279: Tribal School Federal Insurance Parity …; S. 604: Mobile Workforce State Income Tax …; S. 680: PHIT Act of 2019; S. 700: NEW GIG Act of 2019; S. 765: Digital Goods and Services Tax …; S. 1475: Charities Helping Americans Regularly Throughout …; S. 2984: Multifamily Depreciation Parity Act of …

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (40th percentile); Senate Republicans (64th percentile); All Senators (45th percentile).

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

Missed Votes

Thune missed 0.0% of votes (0 of 428 votes) in 2019. View Thune’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Party Leaders (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); All Senators (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 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.