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Sen. Max Baucus’s 2013 Report Card

Senior Senator from Montana
Democrat
Served Dec 15, 1978 – Feb 6, 2014

These year-end statistics cover Baucus’s record during the 2013 legislative year (Jan 3, 2013-Dec 26, 2013) and compare him to other senators serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Dec 1, 2014. On Dec. 1, 2014, the statistics were updated to remove Sen. Schatz from the list of Senate sophomores. Schatz only served for several days in the preceding Congress.

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 Baucus’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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Got influential cosponsors the most often compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 1 other)

10 of Baucus’s bills and resolutions in 2013 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. 141: A bill to make supplemental …; S. 338: Land and Water Conservation Authorization …; S. 391: A bill to amend the …; S. 526: Rural Heritage Conservation Extension Act …; S. 662: Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement …; S. 789: A bill to grant the …; S. 1331: A bill to extend the …; S. 1876: Strengthening And Finding Families for …; S. 1877: Child Support Improvement and Work …; S. 1878: A bill to better enable …

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (95th percentile); Senate Democrats (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (96th percentile); All Senators (97th percentile).

 

Held the 2nd most committee positions compared to All Senators (tied with 2 others)

Baucus held a leadership position on 2 committees and 1 subcommittee, 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 Baucus’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Democrats (92nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); All Senators (96th percentile).

 

Supported government transparency the 6th most often compared to Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 2 others)

GovTrack looked at whether Baucus supported any of 8 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave Baucus 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Baucus cosponsored S. 375: Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act; S. 1130: Ending Secret Law Act

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (80th percentile); Senate Democrats (58th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (77th percentile); All Senators (74th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 8th highest % of bills compared to Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 42% of Baucus’s 26 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2013.

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (76th percentile); Senate Democrats (68th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (74th percentile); All Senators (75th percentile).

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

Cosponsored the 8th fewest bills compared to Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 1 other)

Baucus cosponsored 102 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 Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (17th percentile); Senate Democrats (21st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (25th percentile); All Senators (28th percentile).

 

Ranked 9th most politically right compared to Senate Democrats

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 2013 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Baucus’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (49th percentile); Senate Democrats (83rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (48th percentile); All Senators (46th percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 9th fewest bills compared to Senate Democrats (tied with 3 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 2 of Baucus’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. 141: A bill to make supplemental …; S. 391: A bill to amend the …

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (20th percentile); Senate Democrats (15th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (18th percentile); All Senators (21st percentile).

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

Joined bipartisan bills the 12th most often compared to Senate Democrats

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 102 bills that Baucus cosponsored, 25% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (45th percentile); Senate Democrats (77th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); All Senators (45th percentile).

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

Got their bills out of committee the 15th most often compared to All Senators (tied with 2 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Baucus introduced 6 bills in 2013 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: S. 255: North Fork Watershed Protection Act …; S. 364: Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act …; S. 715: Authorized Rural Water Projects Completion …; S. 1169: Limestone Hills Training Area Withdrawal …; S. 1870: Supporting At-Risk Children Act; S. 1871: SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary …

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (73rd percentile); Senate Democrats (75th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (77th percentile); All Senators (83rd percentile).

 

Ranked the 16th top leader compared to All Senators

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 2013 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Baucus’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (76th percentile); Senate Democrats (70th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (73rd percentile); All Senators (84th percentile).

 

Got the 25th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Senators

Baucus’s bills and resolutions had 195 cosponsors in 2013. 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 Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (71st percentile); Senate Democrats (57th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (66th percentile); All Senators (75th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Baucus introduced 0 bills that became law in 2013. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Senate Democrats (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile).

We only count enacted bills (and joint resolutions) that the legislator was the primary sponsor of. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, such as through companion bills or incorporation into larger bills, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively.
 

Bills Introduced

Baucus introduced 26 bills and resolutions in 2013. View Bills »

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (59th percentile); Senate Democrats (45th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (57th percentile); All Senators (65th percentile).

 

Missed Votes

Baucus missed 0.7% of votes (2 of 291 votes) in 2013. View Baucus’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (29th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (30th percentile); All Senators (30th 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 2013) was the 113th Congress (freshmen) or 112th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.