skip to main content
Hide All The Ads With a Yearly Membership Subscribe ▶

2017 Report Cards
Serving 10+ Years (House)

These special year-end statistics dissect the legislative records of Members of Congress during the 2017 legislative year (Jan 3, 2017-Dec 31, 2017), looking at Members who served at the end of that period. This page was last updated on Jan 6, 2018.

A higher or lower number below doesn’t necessarily make a 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 legislating and make your own judgements based on what legislative 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.

Page Icon

Look at report cards for...

 

Bills Cosponsored

The number of bills cosponsored by each legislator in 2017.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most bills
#1 805 Rep. Norton [D-DC]
#2 621 Rep. McGovern [D-MA2]
... EXPAND ...
#164 17 Rep. McCarthy [R-CA23]
#165 2 Rep. Ryan [R-WI1]
fewest bills
 

Bills Introduced

The number of bills each legislator introduced in 2017.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most bills
#1 65 Rep. Young [R-AK]
#2 48 Rep. Jackson Lee [D-TX18]
... EXPAND ...
#163 1 Rep. Cleaver [D-MO5]
#163 1 Rep. Pelosi [D-CA12]
#163 1 Rep. Visclosky [D-IN1]
fewest bills
 

Bills Out of Committee

The number of bills that each legislator introduced in 2017 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most often
#1 18 Rep. Crowley [D-NY14]
#2 15 Rep. Sessions [R-TX32]
... EXPAND ...
 

Committee Positions

A score, giving five points for each full committee leadership position and one point for each subcommittee leadership position, for each legislator.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most committee positions
#1 10 Rep. Brady [R-TX8]
#2 6 Rep. Lowey [D-NY17]
#2 6 Rep. Slaughter [D-NY25]
#2 6 Rep. Smith [R-NJ4]
#2 6 Rep. Wilson [R-SC2]
... EXPAND ...
 

Cosponsors

The total number of cosponsors joining the bills written by each legislator in 2017.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most cosponsors
#1 1082 Rep. Royce [R-CA39]
#2 972 Rep. DeLauro [D-CT3]
... EXPAND ...
#164 5 Rep. Aderholt [R-AL4]
#165 0 Rep. Pelosi [D-CA12]
fewest cosponsors
 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether legislators supported any of the government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills that we identified in 2017. We gave a score to each legislator based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most often
#1 7 Rep. Speier [D-CA14]
#2 6 Rep. Goodlatte [R-VA6]
#2 6 Rep. Norton [D-DC]
... EXPAND ...
 

Ideology Score

Our unique ideology analysis assigns a score to Members of Congress according to their legislative behavior by whether they sponsor and cosponsor overlapping sets of bills and resolutions with other Members of Congress. The score can be interpreted as a left—right scale measuring the dominant ideological difference or differences among Members of Congress, although of course it only takes into account a small aspect of reality.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most politically right
#1 1.00 Rep. Sessions [R-TX32]
#2 0.89 Rep. King [R-IA4]
... EXPAND ...
#164 0.03 Rep. Norton [D-DC]
#165 0.00 Rep. Lee [D-CA13]
most politically left

For more, see our methodology. Although we do not report a margin of error, the scores fluctuate significantly over time because of the limited data used in the analysis. An ideology score is not computed for Members of Congress who introduced fewer than 10 bills or who have a low leadership score, as there is usually not enough data in these cases to compute reliable statistics. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2017 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from those elsewhere on GovTrack.

 

Joining Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. This is the percent of bills cosponsored by each legislator which were introduced by a member of the other party.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most often
#1 71.2% Rep. Peterson [D-MN7]
#2 67.0% Rep. Cuellar [D-TX28]
... EXPAND ...
#163 1.6% Rep. Smith [R-NE3]
#164 0.0% Rep. Scalise [R-LA1]
least often

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

 

Laws Enacted

The number of bills each legislator introduced that became law in 2017, including via incorporation into other bills. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most laws
#1 5 Rep. Frelinghuysen [R-NJ11]
#2 4 Rep. Brady [R-TX8]
#2 4 Rep. Young [R-AK]
... EXPAND ...

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.

 

Leadership Score

Our unique leadership analysis looks at who is cosponsoring whose bills. A higher score shows a greater ability to get cosponsors on bills.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
top leader
#1 1.00 Rep. Royce [R-CA39]
#2 0.92 Rep. McCaul [R-TX10]
... EXPAND ...
#164 0.06 Rep. Aderholt [R-AL4]
#165 0.01 Rep. Pelosi [D-CA12]
bottom/follower

For more, see our methodology. A leadership score is not computed for Members of Congress who introduced fewer than 10 bills, as there is usually not enough data in these cases to compute reliable statistics. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2017 is considered, the leadership scores here may differ from those elsewhere on GovTrack.

 

Missed Votes

The percentage of votes each legislator missed in 2017.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most absent
#1 37.9% Rep. Scalise [R-LA1]
#2 33.7% Rep. Cummings [D-MD7]
... EXPAND ...

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 appear here 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.

 

Powerful Cosponsors

The number of bills that each legislator introduced in 2017 that 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.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most often
#1 12 Rep. DeFazio [D-OR4]
#2 10 Rep. Chabot [R-OH1]
#2 10 Rep. Engel [D-NY16]
#2 10 Rep. Ros-Lehtinen [R-FL27]
#2 10 Rep. Royce [R-CA39]
... EXPAND ...
 

Working with the Other Chamber

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. This is the number of bills introduced by each legislator in 2017 that had a companion bill in the other chamber. Working with a sponsor in the other chamber makes a bill more likely to be passed by both the House and Senate.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most bills
#1 16 Rep. Young [R-AK]
#2 10 Rep. Johnson [R-TX3]
... EXPAND ...

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

 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. This is the number of bills introduced by each legislator in 2017 which had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor.

Serving 10+ Years (House)
most bills
#1 21 Rep. Poe [R-TX2]
#2 18 Rep. Royce [R-CA39]
... EXPAND ...

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 2017) was the 115th Congress (freshmen) or 114th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.