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Rep. Maxine Waters’s 2014 Report Card

Representative from California's 43rd District
Democrat
Serving Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2025

These statistics cover Waters’s record during the 113th Congress (Jan 3, 2013-Jan 2, 2015) and compare her to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 12, 2015. Although Rep. Suzan DelBene [D-WA1], Rep. Thomas Massie [R-KY4], Rep. Donald Payne [D-NJ10], and Sen. Brian Schatz [D-HI] served in the 112th Congress, they took office within the last two months of the 112th Congress and here are grouped with other freshmen for the 113th 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 Waters’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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Joined bipartisan bills the 2nd least often compared to House Democrats

Of the 226 bills that Waters cosponsored, 15% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (47th percentile); California Delegation (15th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (34th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (44th percentile); All Representatives (41st percentile).

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

Ranked 3rd most politically left compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs

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 113th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Waters’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (4th percentile); California Delegation (26th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (15th percentile); House Democrats (22nd percentile); Safe House Seats (11th percentile); All Representatives (10th percentile).

 

Was 5th most absent in votes compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs

Waters missed 6.9% of votes (83 of 1,204 votes) in the 113th Congress. View Waters’s Profile »

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (89th percentile); California Delegation (77th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (81st percentile); Safe House Seats (86th percentile); All Representatives (87th 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 the 29th most cosponsors on their bills compared to House Democrats

Waters’s bills and resolutions had 470 cosponsors in the 113th 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 House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (69th percentile); California Delegation (83rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Democrats (86th percentile); Safe House Seats (83rd percentile); All Representatives (83rd percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 39th fewest bills compared to House Democrats (tied with 2 others)

Waters cosponsored 226 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 House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (49th percentile); California Delegation (30th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (41st percentile); House Democrats (18th percentile); Safe House Seats (43rd percentile); All Representatives (41st percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 45th fewest bills compared to House Democrats (tied with 41 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 1 of Waters’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. 1767: Medical Debt Responsibility Act of …

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (24th percentile); California Delegation (21st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (18th percentile); House Democrats (21st percentile); Safe House Seats (23rd percentile); All Representatives (23rd percentile).

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

Laws Enacted

Waters introduced 0 bills that became law in the 113th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); California Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (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

Waters introduced 19 bills and resolutions in the 113th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (58th percentile); California Delegation (70th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (62nd percentile); House Democrats (69th percentile); Safe House Seats (71st percentile); All Representatives (71st percentile).

 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Waters introduced 0 bills in the 113th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); California Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

4 of Waters’s bills and resolutions in the 113th 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.Res. 474: Honoring the 210th anniversary of …; H.R. 895: Stop AIDS in Prison Act …; H.R. 3088: Major Drug Trafficking Prosecution Act …; H.Con.Res. 60: Expressing the sense of Congress …

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (40th percentile); California Delegation (62nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (60th percentile); House Democrats (68th percentile); Safe House Seats (68th percentile); All Representatives (69th percentile).

 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

Waters tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 26% of Waters’s 19 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 113th Congress.

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (29th percentile); California Delegation (31st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (31st percentile); House Democrats (39th percentile); Safe House Seats (34th percentile); All Representatives (32nd percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Waters 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 Waters’s Profile »

Compare to all California Delegation (87th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (76th percentile); House Democrats (90th percentile); Safe House Seats (89th percentile); All Representatives (90th 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 113th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Waters’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (42nd percentile); California Delegation (64th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (52nd percentile); House Democrats (72nd percentile); Safe House Seats (56th percentile); All Representatives (56th percentile).

 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Waters supported any of 12 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Waters 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); California Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (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 the 113th Congress) 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.