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Rep. Michael McCaul’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Texas's 10th District
Republican
Serving Jan 4, 2005 – Jan 3, 2025

These year-end statistics cover McCaul’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 McCaul’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 bicameral support on the 10th fewest bills compared to Texas Delegation (tied with 8 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 1 of McCaul’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. 3381: Childhood Cancer STAR Act

Compare to all Texas Delegation (25th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (15th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (23rd percentile); House Republicans (28th percentile); Safe House Seats (29th percentile); All Representatives (29th percentile).

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

Supported government transparency the 13th most often compared to House Republicans (tied with 10 others)

GovTrack looked at whether McCaul supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave McCaul 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

McCaul cosponsored H.R. 653: FOIA Act; H.R. 1615: DHS FOIA Efficiency Act of …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (78th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (68th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Republicans (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (62nd percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 18th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 7 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. McCaul introduced 5 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 399: Secure Our Borders First Act …; H.R. 1731: National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act …; H.R. 2899: Countering Violent Extremism Act of …; H.R. 3572: DHS Headquarters Reform and Improvement …; H.R. 3875: Department of Homeland Security CBRNE …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (86th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (79th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (92nd percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); Safe House Seats (94th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

 

Ranked the 24th top leader compared to All Representatives

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 McCaul’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (92nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (92nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); House Republicans (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (95th percentile); All Representatives (95th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 27th most often compared to House Republicans (tied with 6 others)

5 of McCaul’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. 156: Crude Oil Export Act; H.R. 399: Secure Our Borders First Act …; H.R. 3313: Cyber Defense of Federal Networks …; H.R. 3572: DHS Headquarters Reform and Improvement …; H.R. 4038: American SAFE Act of 2015

Compare to all Texas Delegation (72nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (68th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (81st percentile); House Republicans (87th percentile); Safe House Seats (85th percentile); All Representatives (86th percentile).

 

Ranked 30th 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 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from McCaul’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (44th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (74th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (82nd percentile); House Republicans (49th percentile); Safe House Seats (70th percentile); All Representatives (72nd percentile).

 

Got the 43rd most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)

McCaul’s bills and resolutions had 438 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 (89th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (83rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (85th percentile); House Republicans (88th percentile); Safe House Seats (90th percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).

 

Introduced the 65th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 4 others)

McCaul introduced 18 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (81st percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (74th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (77th percentile); House Republicans (84th percentile); Safe House Seats (83rd percentile); All Representatives (84th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

McCaul 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.
 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

McCaul tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 44% of McCaul’s 18 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (65th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (59th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Republicans (50th percentile); Safe House Seats (68th percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile).

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

Committee Positions

McCaul 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 McCaul’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).

 

Bills Cosponsored

McCaul cosponsored 178 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 (69th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (57th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (50th percentile); House Republicans (74th percentile); Safe House Seats (53rd percentile); All Representatives (54th percentile).

 

Joining Bipartisan Bills

Of the 178 bills that McCaul cosponsored, 15% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (61st percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (51st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Republicans (74th percentile); Safe House Seats (45th percentile); All Representatives (43rd percentile).

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

Missed Votes

McCaul missed 0.0% of votes (0 of 704 votes) in 2015. View McCaul’s Profile »

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

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.