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Rep. Mac Thornberry’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Texas's 13th District
Republican
Served Jan 4, 1995 – Jan 3, 2021

These year-end statistics cover Thornberry’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 Thornberry’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 fewest bills compared to Texas Delegation

Thornberry cosponsored 59 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 (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (4th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (2nd percentile); House Republicans (3rd percentile); Safe House Seats (3rd percentile); All Representatives (2nd percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 4th lowest % of bills compared to House Republicans

Thornberry tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 9% of Thornberry’s 11 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (6th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (6th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (8th percentile); House Republicans (3rd percentile); Safe House Seats (8th percentile); All Representatives (7th percentile).

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

Got the 13th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs

Thornberry’s bills and resolutions had 93 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 Texas Delegation (28th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (23rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (31st percentile); House Republicans (37th percentile); Safe House Seats (37th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Was 15th most present in votes compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 5 others)

Thornberry missed 0.3% of votes (2 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Thornberry’s Profile »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (11th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (17th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (8th percentile); Safe House Seats (9th percentile); All Representatives (9th 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.
 

Got influential cosponsors the 14th least often compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 9 others)

2 of Thornberry’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. 1597: Agile Acquisition to Retain Technological …; H.R. 1735: National Defense Authorization Act for …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (31st percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Republicans (49th percentile); Safe House Seats (43rd percentile); All Representatives (44th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 23rd least often compared to Serving 10+ Years

Of the 59 bills that Thornberry cosponsored, 7% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (42nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (26th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (13th percentile); House Republicans (32nd percentile); Safe House Seats (19th percentile); All Representatives (18th percentile).

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

Ranked 35th most politically left compared to House Republicans

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 Thornberry’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (33rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (51st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (64th percentile); House Republicans (14th percentile); Safe House Seats (52nd percentile); All Representatives (51st percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 51st most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 45 others)

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

Those bills were: H.R. 1735: National Defense Authorization Act for …; H.R. 2130: Red River Private Property Protection …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (61st percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (53rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (72nd percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); Safe House Seats (77th percentile); All Representatives (78th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Thornberry 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 Texas Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (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

Thornberry introduced 11 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (53rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (40th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (46th percentile); House Republicans (57th percentile); Safe House Seats (54th percentile); All Representatives (55th 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 Thornberry’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. 1828: Small Business Taxpayer Bill of …; H.R. 2130: Red River Private Property Protection …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (50th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (40th 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

Thornberry held a leadership position on 1 committee and 0 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Thornberry’s Profile »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (75th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Republicans (87th percentile); Safe House Seats (87th percentile); All Representatives (88th 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 Thornberry’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (42nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (36th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (49th percentile); House Republicans (45th percentile); Safe House Seats (53rd percentile); All Representatives (54th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

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

Compare to all Texas Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (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.