Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s 2015 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 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare her 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 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.
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Cosponsored the 3rd fewest bills compared to New York DelegationVelázquez cosponsored 140 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 (7th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (38th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (34th percentile); House Democrats (13th percentile); Safe House Seats (32nd percentile); All Representatives (32nd percentile). |
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Held the 3rd most committee positions compared to New York Delegation (tied with 1 other)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 (71st percentile); House Democrats (89th percentile); Safe House Seats (87th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile). |
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Ranked the 7th bottom/follower compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembsOur 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 Velázquez’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all New York Delegation (11th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (11th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Democrats (21st percentile); Safe House Seats (18th percentile); All Representatives (19th percentile). |
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Got the 11th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 1 other)Velázquez’s bills and resolutions had 82 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 New York Delegation (30th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (19th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (28th percentile); House Democrats (34th percentile); Safe House Seats (34th percentile); All Representatives (35th percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the 14th least often compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 9 others)2 of Velázquez’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. 3467: Together We Care Act of …; H.R. 3610: Puerto Rico Investor Protection Act … Compare to all New York Delegation (30th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Democrats (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (43rd percentile); All Representatives (44th percentile). |
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Got their bills out of committee the 14th least often compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 14 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Velázquez introduced 1 bill in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 208: Recovery Improvements for Small Entities … Compare to all New York Delegation (48th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); House Democrats (66th percentile); Safe House Seats (45th percentile); All Representatives (46th percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 24th least often compared to House DemocratsOf the 140 bills that Velázquez cosponsored, 19% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all New York Delegation (22nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (60th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (47th percentile); House Democrats (12th percentile); Safe House Seats (56th percentile); All Representatives (54th 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 76th most politically left compared to All RepresentativesOur 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 Velázquez’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all New York Delegation (37th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (19th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (23rd percentile); House Democrats (39th percentile); Safe House Seats (19th percentile); All Representatives (17th percentile). |
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Laws EnactedVelázquez introduced 1 bill 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. 208: Recovery Improvements for Small Entities … Compare to all New York Delegation (78th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (70th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Democrats (85th percentile); Safe House Seats (82nd percentile); All Representatives (82nd 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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Bills IntroducedVelázquez introduced 10 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all New York Delegation (30th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (32nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (39th percentile); House Democrats (44th percentile); Safe House Seats (46th percentile); All Representatives (48th percentile). |
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Working with the SenateThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing 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. |
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Missed VotesVelázquez missed 1.0% of votes (7 of 699 votes) in 2015. View Velázquez’s Profile » Compare to all New York Delegation (26th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (42nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (28th percentile); Safe House Seats (34th percentile); All Representatives (36th 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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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Velázquez supported any of 28 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 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.
