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Rep. Sam Graves’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Missouri's 6th District
Republican
Serving Jan 3, 2001 – Jan 3, 2025

These year-end statistics cover Graves’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 Graves’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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Introduced the most bills compared to Missouri Delegation

Graves introduced 16 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (88th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (70th percentile); House Republicans (79th percentile); Safe House Seats (78th percentile); All Representatives (79th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 2nd fewest bills compared to Missouri Delegation

Graves cosponsored 146 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 Missouri Delegation (13th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Republicans (49th percentile); Safe House Seats (34th percentile); All Representatives (34th percentile).

 

Supported government transparency the 3rd least often compared to Missouri Delegation (tied with 2 others)

GovTrack looked at whether Graves supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Graves 1 point, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Graves cosponsored H.R. 690: Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act …

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (41st percentile); House Republicans (69th percentile); Safe House Seats (41st percentile); All Representatives (43rd percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 3rd fewest bills compared to Missouri Delegation (tied with 3 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 1 of Graves’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. 1062: Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (23rd percentile); House Republicans (28th percentile); Safe House Seats (29th percentile); All Representatives (29th percentile).

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

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 9th highest % of bills compared to Serving 10+ Years

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 63% of Graves’s 16 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Serving 10+ Years (90th percentile); House Republicans (83rd percentile); Safe House Seats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (89th percentile).

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

Ranked the 15th top leader compared to All Representatives

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 Graves’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (88th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); House Republicans (94th percentile); Safe House Seats (96th percentile); All Representatives (97th percentile).

 

Got the 18th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives

Graves’s bills and resolutions had 626 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 Missouri Delegation (88th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (95th percentile); House Republicans (96th percentile); Safe House Seats (96th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile).

 

Ranked 20th most politically right compared to Serving 10+ Years

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 Graves’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (88th percentile); House Republicans (62nd percentile); Safe House Seats (77th percentile); All Representatives (79th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 27th least often compared to Serving 10+ Years

Of the 146 bills that Graves cosponsored, 8% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (50th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (15th percentile); House Republicans (41st percentile); Safe House Seats (25th percentile); All Representatives (23rd percentile).

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

Was 29th most absent in votes compared to All Representatives

Graves missed 8.0% of votes (56 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Graves’s Profile »

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (63rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (93rd 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.
 

Laws Enacted

Graves 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 Missouri Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (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. Graves introduced 0 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

2 of Graves’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.R. 1062: Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2; H.R. 1528: End Discriminatory State Taxes for …

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (63rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (36th percentile); House Republicans (49th percentile); Safe House Seats (43rd percentile); All Representatives (44th percentile).

 

Committee Positions

Graves 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 Graves’s Profile »

Compare to all Missouri Delegation (38th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Republicans (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (36th percentile); All Representatives (38th 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.