Rep. Pete Sessions’s 2015 Report Card

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. Sessions introduced 12 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.Res. 27: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 48: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 129: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 189: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 287: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 305: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 321: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 338: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 388: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 408: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 412: Providing for consideration of the …; H.R. 3014: Medical Controlled Substances Transportation Act …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (94^th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (98^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99^th percentile); House Republicans (99^th percentile); Safe House Seats (99^th percentile); All Representatives (100^th percentile).

Ranked 3^rd most politically right compared to All Representatives

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 Sessions’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (92^nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (98^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99^th percentile); House Republicans (99^th percentile); Safe House Seats (99^th percentile); All Representatives (99^th percentile).

Joined bipartisan bills the 6^th least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 244 bills that Sessions cosponsored, 2% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (3^rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (2^nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (1^st percentile); House Republicans (2^nd percentile); Safe House Seats (1^st percentile); All Representatives (1^st percentile).

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

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 6^th lowest % of bills compared to House Republicans

Sessions tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 12% of Sessions’s 26 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (12^th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (13^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (11^th percentile); House Republicans (5^th percentile); Safe House Seats (10^th percentile); All Representatives (9^th percentile).

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

Got influential cosponsors the 6^th least often compared to Texas Delegation (tied with 5 others)

1 of Sessions’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. 3014: Medical Controlled Substances Transportation Act …

Compare to all Texas Delegation (14^th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (9^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (19^th percentile); House Republicans (22^nd percentile); Safe House Seats (20^th percentile); All Representatives (21^st percentile).

Introduced the 12^th most bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 1 other)

Sessions introduced 26 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (86^th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (87^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (88^th percentile); House Republicans (95^th percentile); Safe House Seats (93^rd percentile); All Representatives (94^th percentile).

Cosponsored the 14^th most bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 1 other)

Sessions cosponsored 244 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 (86^th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (83^rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (76^th percentile); House Republicans (94^th percentile); Safe House Seats (76^th percentile); All Representatives (78^th percentile).

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

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

Sessions cosponsored H.R. 653: FOIA Act; H.R. 4177: Stop Foreign Donations Affecting Our …

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

Ranked the 109^th 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 Sessions’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Texas Delegation (61^st percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (60^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71^st percentile); House Republicans (65^th percentile); Safe House Seats (74^th percentile); All Representatives (75^th percentile).

Laws Enacted

Sessions 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 (0^th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0^th percentile); House Republicans (0^th percentile); Safe House Seats (0^th percentile); All Representatives (0^th 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.

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 3 of Sessions’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. 1718: Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act …; H.R. 2865: Technical Clarification to Public Law …; H.R. 3437: Protecting American Lives Act

Compare to all Texas Delegation (72^nd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (62^nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (68^th percentile); House Republicans (71^st percentile); Safe House Seats (71^st percentile); All Representatives (71^st percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Sessions 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 Sessions’s Profile »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (75^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (71^st percentile); House Republicans (87^th percentile); Safe House Seats (87^th percentile); All Representatives (88^th percentile).

Cosponsors

Sessions’s bills and resolutions had 154 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 (47^th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (38^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (51^st percentile); House Republicans (57^th percentile); Safe House Seats (56^th percentile); All Representatives (57^th percentile).

Missed Votes

Sessions missed 1.3% of votes (9 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Sessions’s Profile »

Compare to all Texas Delegation (39^th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (48^th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (30^th percentile); Safe House Seats (38^th percentile); All Representatives (39^th 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.