Rep. Pete Sessions’s 2016 Report Card
Representative
from Texas's 32nd District
Republican
Served Jan 7, 2003 – Jan 3, 2019
These statistics cover Sessions’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 Sessions’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.
|
|
Ranked 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 Sessions’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (97th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Republicans (100th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile). |
|
|
Cosponsored the 3rd most bills compared to House RepublicansSessions cosponsored 424 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 (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (83rd percentile); House Republicans (99th percentile); All Representatives (86th percentile). |
|
|
Got their bills out of committee the 4th most often compared to All RepresentativesMost bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Sessions introduced 18 bills in the 114th Congress 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.Res. 609: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 649: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 701: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 796: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 797: Providing for consideration of the …; H.Res. 844: Providing for consideration of the …; H.R. 3014: Medical Controlled Substances Transportation Act … Compare to all Texas Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Republicans (98th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile). |
|
|
Joined bipartisan bills the 11th least often compared to Serving 10+ YearsOf the 424 bills that Sessions cosponsored, 5% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (5th percentile); House Republicans (10th percentile); All Representatives (6th percentile). Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
|
|
Introduced the 21st most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)Sessions introduced 38 bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress. View Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (89th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); House Republicans (95th percentile); All Representatives (95th percentile). |
|
|
Got bicameral support on the 45th most bills compared to House Republicans (tied with 17 others)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: H.Res. 942: Recognizing the historical importance of …; 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 (72nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (68th percentile); House Republicans (75th percentile); All Representatives (72nd percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
|
|
Ranked the 76th 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 Sessions’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (75th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (80th percentile); House Republicans (74th percentile); All Representatives (83rd percentile). |
|
|
Laws EnactedSessions introduced 0 bills 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. Compare to all Texas Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th 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. |
|
|
Powerful Cosponsors4 of Sessions’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.Res. 942: Recognizing the historical importance of …; H.R. 822: To amend title XVIII of …; H.R. 3014: Medical Controlled Substances Transportation Act …; H.Con.Res. 148: Expressing the sense of Congress … Compare to all Texas Delegation (39th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (56th percentile); House Republicans (62nd percentile); All Representatives (60th percentile). |
|
|
Writing Bipartisan BillsIn this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 5 of Sessions’s 38 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 114th Congress. Compare to all Texas Delegation (42nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); House Republicans (41st percentile); All Representatives (43rd percentile). |
|
|
Committee PositionsSessions 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 (75th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (74th percentile); House Republicans (87th percentile); All Representatives (88th percentile). |
|
|
CosponsorsSessions’s bills and resolutions had 322 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 (61st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Republicans (70th percentile); All Representatives (67th percentile). |
|
|
Missed VotesSessions missed 1.8% of votes (24 of 1,325 votes) in the 114th Congress. View Sessions’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (31st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (34th percentile); All Representatives (42nd 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 TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Sessions supported any of 40 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 (67th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (50th 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.
