skip to main content
Hide All The Ads With a Yearly Membership Subscribe ▶

Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s 2013 Report Card

Representative from New York's 7th District
Democrat
Serving Jan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2025

These year-end statistics cover Velázquez’s record during the 2013 legislative year (Jan 3, 2013-Dec 26, 2013) and compare her to other representatives 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 Velázquez’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.

Jump to...

 

Cosponsored the fewest bills compared to New York Delegation

Velázquez cosponsored 68 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 New York Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (13th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (8th percentile); House Democrats (3rd percentile); Safe House Seats (6th percentile); All Representatives (5th percentile).

 

Got the fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to New York Delegation

Velázquez’s bills and resolutions had 30 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 New York Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (16th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Democrats (17th percentile); Safe House Seats (17th percentile); All Representatives (16th percentile).

 

Ranked the bottom/follower compared to New York Delegation

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 Velázquez’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all New York Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (9th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (11th percentile); House Democrats (15th percentile); Safe House Seats (11th percentile); All Representatives (10th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 2nd lowest % of bills compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs

Velázquez tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 8% of Velázquez’s 13 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2013.

Compare to all New York Delegation (7th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (5th percentile); House Democrats (9th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (8th percentile); Safe House Seats (6th percentile); All Representatives (6th percentile).

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

Held the 2nd most committee positions compared to New York Delegation (tied with 2 others)

Velázquez 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. 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 Velázquez’s Profile »

Compare to all New York Delegation (85th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (77th percentile); House Democrats (90th percentile); Safe House Seats (89th percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 3rd most often compared to New York Delegation (tied with 3 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Velázquez introduced 1 bill in 2013 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 1846: Lower East Side Tenement National …

Compare to all New York Delegation (78th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (42nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (61st percentile); House Democrats (79th percentile); Safe House Seats (58th percentile); All Representatives (59th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Velázquez 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 New York Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (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

Velázquez introduced 13 bills and resolutions in 2013. View Bills »

Compare to all New York Delegation (56th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (60th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (62nd percentile); House Democrats (71st percentile); Safe House Seats (72nd percentile); All Representatives (72nd percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

0 of Velázquez’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.

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

 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 0 of Velázquez’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.

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

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

Joining Bipartisan Bills

Of the 68 bills that Velázquez cosponsored, 28% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all New York Delegation (26th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (73rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71st percentile); House Democrats (39th percentile); Safe House Seats (72nd percentile); All Representatives (69th percentile).

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

Missed Votes

Velázquez missed 3.9% of votes (25 of 641 votes) in 2013. View Velázquez’s Profile »

Compare to all New York Delegation (44th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (73rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (60th percentile); Safe House Seats (69th percentile); All Representatives (70th 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.
 

Government Transparency

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

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