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Rep. Kenny Marchant’s 2016 Report Card

Representative from Texas's 24th District
Republican
Served Jan 4, 2005 – Jan 3, 2021

These statistics cover Marchant’s record during the 114th Congress (Jan 6, 2015-Jan 3, 2017) and compare him 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 Marchant’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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Ranked 8th 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 the 114th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Marchant’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (81st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (96th percentile); House Republicans (87th percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 6th fewest bills compared to Texas Delegation (tied with 6 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 1 of Marchant’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. 1773: Residue Entries and Streamlining Trade …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (14th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (16th percentile); House Republicans (19th percentile); All Representatives (18th percentile).

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

Got influential cosponsors the 9th least often compared to Texas Delegation (tied with 2 others)

2 of Marchant’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. 3442: Debt Management and Fiscal Responsibility …; H.R. 4062: Protecting Seniors Access to Proper …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (22nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (23rd percentile); House Republicans (30th percentile); All Representatives (27th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 12th least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 258 bills that Marchant cosponsored, 4% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (8th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (3rd percentile); House Republicans (4th percentile); All Representatives (3rd percentile).

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

Was 43rd most absent in votes compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)

Marchant missed 7.2% of votes (95 of 1,325 votes) in the 114th Congress. View Marchant’s Profile »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (83rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (86th percentile); All Representatives (90th 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.
 

Laws Enacted

Marchant introduced 0 bills 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.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th 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

Marchant introduced 13 bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (31st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Republicans (39th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Marchant introduced 2 bills in the 114th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 1152: IRS Email Transparency Act; H.R. 3442: Debt Management and Fiscal Responsibility …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (39th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (54th percentile); House Republicans (30th percentile); All Representatives (49th percentile).

 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 4 of Marchant’s 13 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 114th Congress.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (35th percentile); House Republicans (31st percentile); All Representatives (33rd percentile).

 

Committee Positions

Marchant held a leadership position on 0 committees and 0 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Marchant’s Profile »

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

 

Bills Cosponsored

Marchant cosponsored 258 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 (56th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (43rd percentile); House Republicans (62nd percentile); All Representatives (43rd percentile).

 

Cosponsors

Marchant’s bills and resolutions had 159 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 Texas Delegation (28th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Republicans (40th percentile); All Representatives (38th 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 114th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Marchant’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (61st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (64th percentile); House Republicans (55th percentile); All Representatives (66th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Marchant supported any of 40 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Marchant 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (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 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.