skip to main content
Hide All The Ads With a Yearly Membership Subscribe ▶

Rep. Judy Chu’s 2016 Report Card

Representative from California's 27th District
Democrat
Served Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2023

These statistics cover Chu’s record during the 114th Congress (Jan 6, 2015-Jan 3, 2017) and compare her 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 Chu’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.

Jump to...

 

Ranked 6th most politically left 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 114th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Chu’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all California Delegation (4th percentile); House Democrats (3rd percentile); All Representatives (1st percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 11th most bills compared to All Representatives

Chu cosponsored 653 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 California Delegation (92nd percentile); House Democrats (94th percentile); All Representatives (97th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 16th least often compared to House Democrats

Of the 653 bills that Chu cosponsored, 19% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all California Delegation (25th percentile); House Democrats (8th percentile); All Representatives (49th percentile).

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

Held the 22nd most committee positions compared to House Democrats (tied with 1 other)

Chu 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 Chu’s Profile »

Compare to all California Delegation (87th percentile); House Democrats (88th percentile); All Representatives (84th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 21st fewest bills compared to House Democrats (tied with 21 others)

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 2 of Chu’s 17 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 114th Congress.

Compare to all California Delegation (15th percentile); House Democrats (10th percentile); All Representatives (12th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 46th least often compared to House Democrats (tied with 30 others)

2 of Chu’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. 448: Women’s Health Protection Act of …; H.R. 4008: POWER Act

Compare to all California Delegation (19th percentile); House Democrats (24th percentile); All Representatives (27th percentile).

 

Got the 107th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)

Chu’s bills and resolutions had 419 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 California Delegation (73rd percentile); House Democrats (73rd percentile); All Representatives (75th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Chu 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. 4761: To designate the facility of …

Compare to all California Delegation (58th percentile); House Democrats (55th 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.
 

Bills Introduced

Chu introduced 17 bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all California Delegation (46th percentile); House Democrats (49th percentile); All Representatives (55th percentile).

 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Chu introduced 1 bill in the 114th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 4761: To designate the facility of …

Compare to all California Delegation (33rd percentile); House Democrats (43rd percentile); All Representatives (26th 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 Chu’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.Res. 283: Recognizing the significance of Asian/Pacific …; H.Res. 757: Recognizing the significance of Asian/Pacific …; H.R. 4098: Minority-Serving Institution Fairness Act

Compare to all California Delegation (62nd percentile); House Democrats (54th percentile); All Representatives (59th percentile).

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

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 114th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Chu’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all California Delegation (60th percentile); House Democrats (65th percentile); All Representatives (55th percentile).

 

Missed Votes

Chu missed 4.5% of votes (60 of 1,325 votes) in the 114th Congress. View Chu’s Profile »

Compare to all California Delegation (69th percentile); All Representatives (74th 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.
 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Chu supported any of 40 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Chu 3 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Chu cosponsored H.R. 430: DISCLOSE 2015 Act; H.R. 20: Government By the People Act …; H.R. 6340: Presidential Accountability Act

Compare to all California Delegation (46th percentile); House Democrats (36th percentile); All Representatives (67th 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.