Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s 2015 Report Card
Representative
from Texas's 18th District
Democrat
Serving Jan 4, 1995 – Jan 3, 2025
These year-end statistics cover Jackson Lee’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare her 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 Jackson Lee’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 All RepresentativesJackson Lee introduced 65 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (97th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Democrats (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (100th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the most often compared to All Representatives16 of Jackson Lee’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. 143: Urging the Government of Nigeria …; H.Res. 309: Recognizing June 19, 2015, as …; H.Res. 342: Expressing the sense of the …; H.Res. 489: Commemorating the 88th Anniversary of …; H.R. 48: No Fly for Foreign Fighters …; H.R. 59: Build TRUST Act of 2015; H.R. 61: Securing the Assistance of Victims …; H.R. 710: Essential Transportation Worker Identification Credential …; H.R. 1810: CADET Act; H.R. 2470: Private Prison Information Act of …; H.R. 2795: First Responder Identification of Emergency …; H.R. 3155: Effective and Humane Treatment of …; H.R. 3156: Fair Chance for Youth Act …; H.R. 3158: RAISE Act of 2015; H.R. 3354: Federal Prison Bureau Relief Act …; H.R. 4240: No Fly for Foreign Fighters … Compare to all Texas Delegation (97th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (99th percentile); House Democrats (99th percentile); Safe House Seats (100th percentile); All Representatives (100th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the most bills compared to Texas DelegationJackson Lee cosponsored 395 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 Texas Delegation (97th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); House Democrats (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (95th percentile); All Representatives (96th percentile). |
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Ranked most politically left compared to Texas DelegationOur 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 Jackson Lee’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (7th percentile); House Democrats (9th percentile); Safe House Seats (4th percentile); All Representatives (4th percentile). |
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Was 13th most absent in votes compared to All RepresentativesJackson Lee missed 11.6% of votes (82 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Jackson Lee’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (94th percentile); Safe House Seats (97th percentile); All Representatives (97th 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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Ranked the 17th top leader compared to House DemocratsOur 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 Jackson Lee’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Texas Delegation (72nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (74th percentile); House Democrats (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (77th percentile); All Representatives (78th percentile). |
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Got the 26th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)Jackson Lee’s bills and resolutions had 548 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 Texas Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); House Democrats (94th percentile); Safe House Seats (93rd percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 26th lowest % of bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 2 others)Jackson Lee tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 15% of Jackson Lee’s 65 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015. Compare to all Texas Delegation (24th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Democrats (18th percentile); Safe House Seats (14th percentile); All Representatives (13th percentile). Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 27th least often compared to House DemocratsOf the 395 bills that Jackson Lee cosponsored, 20% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Texas Delegation (72nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (49th percentile); House Democrats (14th percentile); Safe House Seats (57th percentile); All Representatives (55th 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 EnactedJackson Lee 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 Texas Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (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. |
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Bills Out of CommitteeMost bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Jackson Lee introduced 1 bill in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.R. 2795: First Responder Identification of Emergency … Compare to all Texas Delegation (39th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); House Democrats (66th percentile); Safe House Seats (45th percentile); All Representatives (46th percentile). |
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Working with the SenateThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Compare to all Texas Delegation (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (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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Committee PositionsJackson Lee 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 Jackson Lee’s Profile » Compare to all Texas Delegation (22nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Democrats (38th percentile); Safe House Seats (36th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile). |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Jackson Lee supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Jackson Lee 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Jackson Lee cosponsored H.R. 20: Government By the People Act …; H.R. 3838: Fairness in Incarcerated Representation Act Compare to all Texas Delegation (78th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Democrats (31st percentile); Safe House Seats (62nd percentile); All Representatives (65th 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.
