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Rep. Robin Kelly’s 2019 Report Card

Representative from Illinois's 2nd District
Democrat
Serving Apr 9, 2013 – Jan 3, 2025

These year-end statistics cover Kelly’s record during the 2019 legislative year (Jan 3, 2019-Dec 31, 2019) and compare her to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 18, 2020.

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 Kelly’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 bicameral support on the 20th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 7 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 8 of Kelly’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. 1668: IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of …; H.R. 1897: MOMMA’s Act; H.R. 2844: Creating Pathways for Youth Employment …; H.R. 2920: Community College to Career Fund …; H.R. 3633: Women and Minority Equity Investment …; H.R. 5181: To amend the Omnibus Crime …; H.R. 5385: To amend the Omnibus Crime …; H.R. 5420: Pullman National Historical Park Act

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (78th percentile); House Democrats (89th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

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

Got their bills out of committee the 22nd most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 8 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Kelly introduced 6 bills in 2019 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 1449: To designate the facility of …; H.R. 1503: Orange Book Transparency Act of …; H.R. 1668: IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of …; H.R. 2119: To amend the Energy Policy …; H.R. 4650: Medicare Dental Act of 2019; H.R. 4996: Helping MOMS Act of 2019

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (89th percentile); House Democrats (89th percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 32nd most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 12 others)

7 of Kelly’s bills and resolutions in 2019 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. 1114: To require the Surgeon General …; H.R. 1115: Firearm Safety Act of 2019; H.R. 1503: Orange Book Transparency Act of …; H.R. 1668: IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of …; H.R. 1897: MOMMA’s Act; H.R. 4650: Medicare Dental Act of 2019; H.R. 4996: Helping MOMS Act of 2019

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (83rd percentile); House Democrats (83rd percentile); All Representatives (90th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 77th most bills compared to All Representatives

Kelly cosponsored 390 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 Illinois Delegation (72nd percentile); House Democrats (68th percentile); All Representatives (82nd percentile).

 

Ranked 86th 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 2019 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Kelly’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (22nd percentile); House Democrats (36th percentile); All Representatives (19th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 111th least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 390 bills that Kelly cosponsored, 9% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (33rd percentile); House Democrats (47th percentile); All Representatives (25th percentile).

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

Laws Enacted

Kelly introduced 1 bill that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2019. 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. 1449: To designate the facility of …

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (67th percentile); House Democrats (57th percentile); All Representatives (63rd 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.
 

Bills Introduced

Kelly introduced 19 bills and resolutions in 2019. View Bills »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (50th percentile); House Democrats (61st percentile); All Representatives (74th percentile).

 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 9 of Kelly’s 19 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Kelly caucused with in 2019.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (39th percentile); House Democrats (55th percentile); All Representatives (69th percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Kelly held a leadership position on 0 committees and 0 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Kelly’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Cosponsors

Kelly’s bills and resolutions had 338 cosponsors in 2019. 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 Illinois Delegation (67th percentile); House Democrats (54th percentile); All Representatives (72nd percentile).

 

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.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2019 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Kelly’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (67th percentile); House Democrats (55th percentile); All Representatives (72nd percentile).

 

Missed Votes

Kelly missed 0.7% of votes (5 of 701 votes) in 2019. View Kelly’s Profile »

Compare to all Illinois Delegation (28th percentile); All Representatives (28th 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.

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 2019) 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.