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2020 Report Cards
Senate Party Leaders

These statistics dissect the legislative records of Members of Congress during the 116th Congress (Jan 3, 2019-Jan 3, 2021), as of Jan 30, 2021.

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.

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Bills Cosponsored

The number of bills cosponsored by each legislator in the 116th Congress.

Senate Party Leaders
most bills
#1 833 Sen. Klobuchar [D-MN]
#2 662 Sen. Durbin [D-IL]
... EXPAND ...
#13 146 Sen. Thune [R-SD]
#14 67 Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
fewest bills
 

Bills Introduced

The number of bills each legislator introduced in the 116th Congress.

Senate Party Leaders
most bills
#1 118 Sen. Klobuchar [D-MN]
#2 108 Sen. Durbin [D-IL]
... EXPAND ...
#13 37 Sen. Barrasso [R-WY]
#14 21 Sen. Leahy [D-VT]
fewest bills
 

Bills Out of Committee

The number of bills that each legislator introduced in the 116th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action.

Senate Party Leaders
most often
#1 36 Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
#2 35 Sen. Cornyn [R-TX]
... EXPAND ...
#13 5 Sen. Stabenow [D-MI]
#14 4 Sen. Leahy [D-VT]
least often
 

Committee Positions

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

Senate Party Leaders
most committee positions
#1 16 Sen. Blunt [R-MO]
#2 10 Sen. Grassley [R-IA]
... EXPAND ...
#13 0 Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
#13 0 Sen. Schumer [D-NY]
fewest committee positions
 

Cosponsors

The total number of cosponsors joining the bills written by each legislator in the 116th Congress.

Senate Party Leaders
most cosponsors
#1 914 Sen. Durbin [D-IL]
#2 843 Sen. Murray [D-WA]
... EXPAND ...
#13 304 Sen. Barrasso [R-WY]
#14 160 Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
fewest cosponsors
 

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.

Senate Party Leaders
most politically right
#1 0.92 Sen. Ernst [R-IA]
#2 0.90 Sen. Cornyn [R-TX]
... EXPAND ...
#13 0.19 Sen. Klobuchar [D-MN]
#14 0.19 Sen. Durbin [D-IL]
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 the 116th Congress 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.

Senate Party Leaders
most often
#1 36.0% Sen. Grassley [R-IA]
#2 33.3% Sen. Blunt [R-MO]
... EXPAND ...
#13 19.8% Sen. Durbin [D-IL]
#14 16.4% Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
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 the 116th Congress, including via incorporation into other bills. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Senate Party Leaders
most laws
#1 19 Sen. Cornyn [R-TX]
#2 11 Sen. Grassley [R-IA]
... EXPAND ...
#12 1 Sen. Durbin [D-IL]
#12 1 Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
#14 0 Sen. Ernst [R-IA]
fewest laws

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.

Senate Party Leaders
top leader
#1 0.85 Sen. Cornyn [R-TX]
#2 0.78 Sen. Durbin [D-IL]
... EXPAND ...
#13 0.44 Sen. Leahy [D-VT]
#14 0.43 Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
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 the 116th Congress is considered, the leadership scores here may differ from those elsewhere on GovTrack.

 

Missed Votes

The percentage of votes each legislator missed in the 116th Congress.

Senate Party Leaders
most absent
#1 29.2% Sen. Klobuchar [D-MN]
#2 5.6% Sen. Murray [D-WA]
... EXPAND ...
#12 0.1% Sen. Barrasso [R-WY]
#12 0.1% Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
#12 0.1% Sen. Schumer [D-NY]
most present

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 the 116th Congress 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.

Senate Party Leaders
most often
#1 17 Sen. Grassley [R-IA]
#2 14 Sen. Baldwin [D-WI]
#2 14 Sen. Barrasso [R-WY]
#2 14 Sen. Cornyn [R-TX]
... EXPAND ...
#12 3 Sen. Blunt [R-MO]
#12 3 Sen. Stabenow [D-MI]
#14 1 Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
least often
 

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 the 116th Congress 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.

Senate Party Leaders
most bills
#1 46 Sen. Durbin [D-IL]
#2 36 Sen. Cornyn [R-TX]
... EXPAND ...
#13 8 Sen. Blunt [R-MO]
#14 3 Sen. McConnell [R-KY]
fewest bills

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 the 116th Congress which had a cosponsor from the other political party than the party the legislator caucused with.

Senate Party Leaders
most bills
#1 71 Sen. Klobuchar [D-MN]
#2 70 Sen. Cornyn [R-TX]
... EXPAND ...
#13 10 Sen. Murray [D-WA]
#14 5 Sen. Schumer [D-NY]
fewest bills

Only Members of Congress who caucused with either the Democrats or the Republicans are included in this statistic. Cosponsors who caucused with neither party do not count toward this statistic.

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.