Rep. Rod Blum’s 2017 Report Card
Representative
from Iowa's 1st District
Republican
Served Jan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2019
These year-end statistics cover Blum’s record during the 2017 legislative year (Jan 3, 2017-Dec 31, 2017) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 6, 2018.
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 Blum’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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Cosponsored the 8th fewest bills compared to House Sophomores (tied with 1 other)Blum cosponsored 103 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 House Sophomores (11th percentile); House Republicans (26th percentile); All Representatives (15th percentile). |
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Got the 33rd fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)Blum’s bills and resolutions had 17 cosponsors in 2017. 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 House Sophomores (8th percentile); House Republicans (7th percentile); All Representatives (7th percentile). |
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Got their bills out of committee the 53rd most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 26 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Blum introduced 4 bills in 2017 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 69: Thoroughly Investigating Retaliation Against Whistleblowers …; H.R. 1074: To repeal the Act entitled …; H.R. 2195: OSC Access Act; H.R. 4043: Whistleblower Protection Extension Act of … Compare to all House Sophomores (74th percentile); House Republicans (72nd percentile); All Representatives (82nd percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 86th least often compared to All RepresentativesOf the 103 bills that Blum cosponsored, 9% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all House Sophomores (23rd percentile); House Republicans (35th percentile); All Representatives (19th percentile). Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Laws EnactedBlum introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2017. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. Compare to all House Sophomores (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. |
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Bills IntroducedBlum introduced 9 bills and resolutions in 2017. View Bills » Compare to all House Sophomores (35th percentile); House Republicans (37th percentile); All Representatives (34th percentile). |
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Powerful Cosponsors3 of Blum’s bills and resolutions in 2017 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. 69: Thoroughly Investigating Retaliation Against Whistleblowers …; H.R. 2195: OSC Access Act; H.R. 4043: Whistleblower Protection Extension Act of … Compare to all House Sophomores (66th percentile); House Republicans (69th percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile). |
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Working with the SenateThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Compare to all House Sophomores (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Writing Bipartisan BillsIn this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 4 of Blum’s 9 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2017. Compare to all House Sophomores (50th percentile); House Republicans (47th percentile); All Representatives (50th percentile). |
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Committee PositionsBlum held a leadership position on 0 committees and 1 subcommittee, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Blum’s Profile » Compare to all House Sophomores (45th percentile); House Republicans (37th percentile); All Representatives (39th percentile). |
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Missed VotesBlum missed 1.5% of votes (11 of 710 votes) in 2017. View Blum’s Profile » Compare to all House Sophomores (58th percentile); All Representatives (45th 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. |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Blum supported any of 21 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Blum 1 point, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Blum cosponsored H.R. 4494: Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund … Compare to all House Sophomores (23rd percentile); House Republicans (36th percentile); All Representatives (28th 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 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.
