Sen. Steve Daines’s 2015 Report Card
Junior
Senator
from Montana
Republican
Serving Jan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2027
These year-end statistics cover Daines’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare him to other senators 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 Daines’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 Senate Freshmen (tied with 1 other)The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Those bills were: S. 493: Balanced Budget Accountability Act; S. 1103: A bill to reinstate and …; S. 1104: A bill to extend the …; S. 1361: A bill to amend the …; S. 1487: Regulatory Predictability for Business Growth …; S. 1552: Clean Water for Rural Communities …; S. 1819: Securing Military Personnel Response Firearm … Compare to all Senate Freshmen (85th percentile); Senate Republicans (52nd percentile); All Senators (45th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Held the fewest committee positions compared to Senate Freshmen (tied with 1 other)Daines 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. For comparison to other Members of Congress, we assigned a score giving five points for each full committee leadership position and one point for each subcommittee leadership position. View Daines’s Profile » Compare to all Senate Freshmen (0th percentile); Senate Republicans (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile). |
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Introduced the 3rd most bills compared to Senate FreshmenDaines introduced 17 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills » Compare to all Senate Freshmen (77th percentile); Senate Republicans (31st percentile); All Senators (27th percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 9th lowest % of bills compared to Senate RepublicansDaines tends to gather cosponsors only on one side of the aisle. 18% of Daines’s 17 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015. Compare to all Senate Republicans (20th percentile); All Senators (21st percentile). Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Got the 10th fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to All SenatorsDaines’s bills and resolutions had 35 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 Senate Freshmen (38th percentile); Senate Republicans (15th percentile); All Senators (9th percentile). |
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Ranked the 12th bottom/follower compared to All SenatorsOur 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 Daines’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Senate Freshmen (31st percentile); Senate Republicans (13th percentile); All Senators (11th percentile). |
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Got their bills out of committee the 14th least often compared to Senate Republicans (tied with 5 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Daines introduced 2 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: S. 1103: A bill to reinstate and …; S. 1104: A bill to extend the … Compare to all Senate Freshmen (54th percentile); Senate Republicans (24th percentile); All Senators (43rd percentile). |
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Laws EnactedDaines 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 Senate Freshmen (0th percentile); Senate Republicans (0th percentile); All Senators (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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Powerful Cosponsors0 of Daines’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. Compare to all Senate Freshmen (0th percentile); Senate Republicans (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile). |
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Bills CosponsoredDaines cosponsored 144 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 Senate Freshmen (69th percentile); Senate Republicans (57th percentile); All Senators (37th percentile). |
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Joining Bipartisan BillsOf the 144 bills that Daines cosponsored, 21% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Senate Freshmen (54th percentile); Senate Republicans (56th percentile); All Senators (32nd 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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Missed VotesDaines missed 0.0% of votes (0 of 339 votes) in 2015. View Daines’s Profile » Compare to all Senate Freshmen (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile). |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Daines supported any of 19 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave Daines 1 point, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Daines cosponsored S. 366: Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act Compare to all Senate Freshmen (62nd percentile); Senate Republicans (63rd percentile); All Senators (34th 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.
