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Rep. Ryan Zinke’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Montana's At-Large District
Republican
Served Jan 6, 2015 – Mar 1, 2017

These year-end statistics cover Zinke’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 9, 2016.

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 Zinke’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 most bills compared to House Freshmen

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 6 of Zinke’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. 286: Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa …; H.R. 577: To require the Secretary of …; H.R. 1522: To amend the Internal Revenue …; H.R. 2080: To reinstate and extend the …; H.R. 2081: To extend the deadline for …; H.R. 3867: Clean Water for Rural Communities …

Compare to all House Freshmen (98th percentile); House Republicans (94th percentile); Safe House Seats (94th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

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

Introduced the 2nd most bills compared to House Freshmen (tied with 1 other)

Zinke introduced 13 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all House Freshmen (95th percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); Safe House Seats (64th percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile).

 

Got the 4th most cosponsors on their bills compared to House Freshmen

Zinke’s bills and resolutions had 202 cosponsors in 2015. 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 Freshmen (94th percentile); House Republicans (68th percentile); Safe House Seats (64th percentile); All Representatives (66th percentile).

 

Ranked the 4th top leader compared to House Freshmen

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 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Zinke’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all House Freshmen (94th percentile); House Republicans (70th percentile); Safe House Seats (79th percentile); All Representatives (80th percentile).

 

Ranked 17th most politically right 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 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Zinke’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all House Freshmen (95th percentile); House Republicans (93rd percentile); Safe House Seats (96th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 23rd most bills compared to House Republicans

Zinke cosponsored 232 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 Freshmen (88th percentile); House Republicans (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (73rd percentile); All Representatives (74th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 89th least often compared to All Representatives

Of the 232 bills that Zinke cosponsored, 7% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all House Freshmen (33rd percentile); House Republicans (35th percentile); Safe House Seats (21st percentile); All Representatives (20th percentile).

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

Laws Enacted

Zinke introduced 0 bills that became law in 2015. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law.

Compare to all House Freshmen (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

A bill or joint resolution is considered enacted if it or an exactly identical bill to it is enacted as law. We only consider bills that the legislator was the primary sponsor of. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, such as through incorporation into larger bills, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively.
 

Bills Out of Committee

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Zinke introduced 1 bill in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 2358: Electricity Reliability and Forest Protection …

Compare to all House Freshmen (50th percentile); House Republicans (31st percentile); Safe House Seats (45th percentile); All Representatives (46th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

1 of Zinke’s bills and resolutions in 2015 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.Res. 553: Urging the President and the …

Compare to all House Freshmen (31st percentile); House Republicans (22nd percentile); Safe House Seats (20th percentile); All Representatives (21st percentile).

 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

Zinke tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 38% of Zinke’s 13 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all House Freshmen (38th percentile); House Republicans (37th percentile); Safe House Seats (55th percentile); All Representatives (53rd percentile).

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

Committee Positions

Zinke 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 Zinke’s Profile »

Compare to all House Freshmen (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Missed Votes

Zinke missed 1.7% of votes (12 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Zinke’s Profile »

Compare to all House Freshmen (71st percentile); Safe House Seats (46th percentile); All Representatives (48th 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.
 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Zinke supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Zinke 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all House Freshmen (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th 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 2015) was the 114th Congress (freshmen) or 113th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.