Rep. Michael Burgess’s 2015 Report Card
Representative
from Texas's 26th District
Republican
Serving Jan 7, 2003 – Jan 3, 2025
These year-end statistics cover Burgess’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 Burgess’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 their bills out of committee the most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Burgess introduced 12 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.Res. 19: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 70: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 138: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 173: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 319: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 333: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 350: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 539: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 542: Providing for further consideration of …; H.R. 647: Access to Life-Saving Trauma Care …; H.R. 648: Trauma Systems and Regionalization of …; H.R. 2045: Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters … Compare to all Texas Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Republicans (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile). |
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Introduced the 2nd most bills compared to House RepublicansBurgess introduced 38 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (97th percentile); House Republicans (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (98th percentile); All Representatives (98th percentile). |
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Got bicameral support on the 11th most bills compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 3 others)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.R. 292: Advancing Research for Neurological Diseases …; H.R. 648: Trauma Systems and Regionalization of …; H.R. 1209: Improving Access to Maternity Care …; H.R. 1470: SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider …; H.R. 2196: Medicare Independence at Home Medical … Compare to all Texas Delegation (92nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (92nd percentile); House Republicans (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (91st percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Was 15th most present in votes compared to Serving 10+ Years (tied with 5 others)Burgess missed 0.3% of votes (2 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Burgess’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (11th 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. |
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Ranked 22nd most politically right compared to Serving 10+ YearsOur 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 Burgess’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (58th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (87th percentile); House Republicans (60th percentile); Safe House Seats (76th percentile); All Representatives (78th percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the 19th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 9 others)7 of Burgess’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. 2: Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization …; H.R. 647: Access to Life-Saving Trauma Care …; H.R. 648: Trauma Systems and Regionalization of …; H.R. 1209: Improving Access to Maternity Care …; H.R. 1470: SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider …; H.R. 2045: Targeting Rogue and Opaque Letters …; H.R. 2461: To amend title XVIII of … Compare to all Texas Delegation (86th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (90th percentile); House Republicans (92nd percentile); Safe House Seats (93rd percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 43rd least often compared to Serving 10+ YearsOf the 168 bills that Burgess cosponsored, 11% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (56th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (25th percentile); House Republicans (61st percentile); Safe House Seats (37th percentile); All Representatives (35th percentile). Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Ranked the 63rd top leader compared to All RepresentativesOur 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 Burgess’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (75th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (81st percentile); House Republicans (77th percentile); Safe House Seats (85th percentile); All Representatives (86th percentile). |
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Got the 74th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All RepresentativesBurgess’s bills and resolutions had 344 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 (69th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (75th percentile); House Republicans (81st percentile); Safe House Seats (82nd percentile); All Representatives (83rd percentile). |
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Laws EnactedBurgess introduced 2 bills that became law in 2015. 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. 2: Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization …; H.R. 2196: Medicare Independence at Home Medical … Compare to all Texas Delegation (86th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); House Republicans (95th percentile); Safe House Seats (97th percentile); All Representatives (97th 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. |
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Writing Bipartisan BillsBurgess tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 42% of Burgess’s 38 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015. Compare to all Texas Delegation (59th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (68th percentile); House Republicans (47th percentile); Safe House Seats (64th percentile); All Representatives (61st percentile). Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Committee PositionsBurgess held a leadership position on 0 committees and 1 subcommittee, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Burgess’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (22nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (36th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile). |
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Bills CosponsoredBurgess cosponsored 168 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 (47th percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); Safe House Seats (46th percentile); All Representatives (47th percentile). |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Burgess supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Burgess 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); 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.
