Rep. Pete Olson’s 2016 Report Card
Representative
from Texas's 22nd District
Republican
Served Jan 6, 2009 – Jan 3, 2021
These statistics cover Olson’s record during the 114th Congress (Jan 6, 2015-Jan 3, 2017) and compare him to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Aug 24, 2017. The statistics were updated on Jan 20, 2017 and Aug 24, 2017 to improve how we counted enacted laws. Originally published on Jan 7, 2017.
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 Olson’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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Ranked 3rd most politically right 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 the 114th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Olson’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (92nd percentile); House Republicans (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 4th most bills compared to House RepublicansOlson cosponsored 422 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 (92nd percentile); House Republicans (98th percentile); All Representatives (86th percentile). |
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Ranked the 40th 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 the 114th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Olson’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (83rd percentile); House Republicans (85th percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 50th least often compared to All RepresentativesOf the 422 bills that Olson cosponsored, 6% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (36th percentile); House Republicans (20th percentile); All Representatives (11th 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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Got bicameral support on the 44th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 20 others)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.R. 1192: National Clinical Care Commission Act; H.R. 2043: Diagnostic Imaging Services Access Protection …; H.R. 2292: Preserving Rehabilitation Innovation Centers Act …; H.R. 4614: Medicare Access to Radiology Care …; H.R. 6157: Contact Lens Consumer Health Protection …; H.Con.Res. 22: Authorizing the use of Emancipation … Compare to all Texas Delegation (83rd percentile); House Republicans (85th percentile); All Representatives (85th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Got the 66th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)Olson’s bills and resolutions had 562 cosponsors in the 114th 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 Texas Delegation (81st percentile); House Republicans (84th percentile); All Representatives (85th percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 72nd most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 16 others)In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 10 of Olson’s 20 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 114th Congress. Compare to all Texas Delegation (78th percentile); House Republicans (76th percentile); All Representatives (80th percentile). |
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Laws EnactedOlson introduced 1 bill that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 114th Congress. 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. 4877: To designate the facility of … Compare to all Texas Delegation (44th percentile); House Republicans (45th percentile); All Representatives (49th percentile). The legislator must be the primary sponsor of the bill or joint resolution that was enacted or the primary sponsor of a bill or joint resolution for which at least about one third of its text was incorporated into another bill or joint resolution that was enacted as law, as determined by an automated analysis. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively. We also exclude bills where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill. |
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Bills IntroducedOlson introduced 20 bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress. View Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (64th percentile); House Republicans (68th percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile). |
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Bills Out of CommitteeMost bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Olson introduced 3 bills in the 114th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 1192: National Clinical Care Commission Act; H.R. 4775: Ozone Standards Implementation Act of …; H.R. 4877: To designate the facility of … Compare to all Texas Delegation (61st percentile); House Republicans (52nd percentile); All Representatives (69th percentile). |
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Powerful Cosponsors5 of Olson’s bills and resolutions in the 114th 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.R. 1192: National Clinical Care Commission Act; H.R. 2043: Diagnostic Imaging Services Access Protection …; H.R. 2292: Preserving Rehabilitation Innovation Centers Act …; H.R. 4614: Medicare Access to Radiology Care …; H.R. 5116: FREE Act Compare to all Texas Delegation (56th percentile); House Republicans (73rd percentile); All Representatives (71st percentile). |
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Committee PositionsOlson 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 Olson’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (22nd percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); All Representatives (39th percentile). |
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Missed VotesOlson missed 1.9% of votes (25 of 1,325 votes) in the 114th Congress. View Olson’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (33rd percentile); All Representatives (43rd 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 Olson supported any of 40 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Olson 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Olson cosponsored H.R. 598: Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act; H.R. 653: FOIA Act Compare to all Texas Delegation (67th percentile); House Republicans (81st percentile); All Representatives (52nd 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 114th Congress) 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.
