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Rep. Peter DeFazio’s 2020 Report Card

Representative from Oregon's 4th District
Democrat
Served Jan 6, 1987 – Jan 3, 2023

These statistics cover DeFazio’s record during the 116th Congress (Jan 3, 2019-Jan 3, 2021) and compare him to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 30, 2021.

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 DeFazio’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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Got influential cosponsors the 2nd most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)

23 of DeFazio’s bills and resolutions in the 116th 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. 2: Moving Forward Act; H.R. 367: Pay Our Coast Guard Parity …; H.R. 1108: Aviation Funding Stability Act of …; H.R. 1171: FASTER Act; H.R. 1418: Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act …; H.R. 1497: Water Quality Protection and Job …; H.R. 2197: John F. Kennedy Center Reauthorization …; H.R. 2382: USPS Fairness Act; H.R. 2440: Full Utilization of the Harbor …; H.R. 3409: Coast Guard Authorization Act of …; H.R. 3632: Fair and Open Skies Act; H.R. 5047: GSA Lease Transparency Act of …; H.R. 5120: SAFER Pipelines Act of 2019; H.R. 5139: Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment …; H.R. 6669: COVID-19 Cost Share Adjustment Relief …; H.R. 6745: Clean Water for All Act; H.R. 7095: INVEST in America Act; H.R. 7575: Water Resources Development Act of …; H.R. 7867: Healthy Flights Act of 2020; H.R. 8266: FEMA Assistance Relief Act of …; H.R. 8408: Aircraft Certification Reform and Accountability …; H.R. 8504: Payroll Support Program Extension Act; H.J.Res. 66: War Powers Amendments of 2019

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Democrats (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 5th most often compared to All Representatives

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. DeFazio introduced 21 bills in the 116th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 2: Moving Forward Act; H.R. 367: Pay Our Coast Guard Parity …; H.R. 876: Pacific Northwest Earthquake Preparedness Act …; H.R. 993: Frank Moore Wild Steelhead Special …; H.R. 994: Chetco River Protection Act of …; H.R. 1056: Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild …; H.R. 1108: Aviation Funding Stability Act of …; H.R. 1418: Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act …; H.R. 1497: Water Quality Protection and Job …; H.R. 2197: John F. Kennedy Center Reauthorization …; H.R. 2382: USPS Fairness Act; H.R. 2440: Full Utilization of the Harbor …; H.R. 3409: Coast Guard Authorization Act of …; H.R. 3632: Fair and Open Skies Act; H.R. 5047: GSA Lease Transparency Act of …; H.R. 5119: Safe Aircraft Maintenance Standards Act; H.R. 5120: SAFER Pipelines Act of 2019; H.R. 5139: Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment …; H.R. 7575: Water Resources Development Act of …; H.R. 8266: FEMA Assistance Relief Act of …; H.R. 8408: Aircraft Certification Reform and Accountability …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Democrats (98th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Got the 5th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives

DeFazio’s bills and resolutions had 1,884 cosponsors in the 116th 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 Serving 10+ Years (97th percentile); House Democrats (98th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Ranked the 5th 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 the 116th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from DeFazio’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (97th percentile); House Democrats (98th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 12th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 5 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 15 of DeFazio’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.Res. 402: Recognizing the significant milestone of …; H.R. 2: Moving Forward Act; H.R. 1056: Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild …; H.R. 1108: Aviation Funding Stability Act of …; H.R. 1171: FASTER Act; H.R. 1418: Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act …; H.R. 1516: Wall Street Tax Act of …; H.R. 2382: USPS Fairness Act; H.R. 2396: Full Utilization of the Harbor …; H.R. 2440: Full Utilization of the Harbor …; H.R. 2983: United States Employee Ownership Bank …; H.R. 7095: INVEST in America Act; H.R. 7961: CAHOOTS Act; H.R. 8266: FEMA Assistance Relief Act of …; H.J.Res. 89: Withdrawing approval of the Agreement …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); House Democrats (94th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile).

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

Introduced the 22nd most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 4 others)

DeFazio introduced 53 bills and resolutions in the 116th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); House Democrats (90th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 41st most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 22 of DeFazio’s 53 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party DeFazio caucused with in the 116th Congress.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (86th percentile); House Democrats (86th percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).

Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic.
 

Cosponsored the 47th most bills compared to All Representatives

DeFazio cosponsored 714 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 Serving 10+ Years (88th percentile); House Democrats (81st percentile); All Representatives (89th percentile).

 

Was 92nd most absent in votes compared to All Representatives (tied with 3 others)

DeFazio missed 4.6% of votes (44 of 954 votes) in the 116th Congress. View DeFazio’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (76th percentile); All Representatives (78th 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.
 

Joined bipartisan bills the 107th least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 714 bills that DeFazio cosponsored, 8% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (32nd percentile); House Democrats (45th percentile); All Representatives (24th percentile).

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

Ranked 108th most politically left 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 the 116th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from DeFazio’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (31st percentile); House Democrats (45th percentile); All Representatives (25th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

DeFazio introduced 5 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 116th 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. 993: Frank Moore Wild Steelhead Special …; H.R. 994: Chetco River Protection Act of …; H.R. 1056: Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild …; H.R. 1418: Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act …; H.R. 2197: John F. Kennedy Center Reauthorization …

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); House Democrats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (95th 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.
 

Committee Positions

DeFazio 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 DeFazio’s Profile »

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Democrats (86th percentile); All Representatives (87th 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 116th Congress) was the 116th Congress (freshmen) or 115th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.