Sen. Steve Daines’s 2016 Report Card
Junior
Senator
from Montana
Republican
Serving Jan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2027
These statistics cover Daines’s record during the 114th Congress (Jan 6, 2015-Jan 3, 2017) and compare him to other senators also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Aug 24, 2017. The statistics were updated on Jan 20, 2017 and Aug 24, 2017 to improve how we counted enacted laws. Originally published on Jan 7, 2017.
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: SEMPER FI Act; S. 2440: Repeal ID Act of 2016; S. 2999: A bill to prohibit the …; S. 3533: Litigation Relief for Forest Management …; S.Res. 396: A resolution expressing the sense … Compare to all Senate Freshmen (85th percentile); Senate Republicans (61st percentile); All Senators (51st 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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Was most present in votes compared to Senate Freshmen (tied with 1 other)Daines missed 0.0% of votes (0 of 502 votes) in the 114th Congress. View Daines’s Profile » Compare to all Senate Freshmen (0th percentile); All Senators (0th percentile). |
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Introduced the 3rd most bills compared to Senate FreshmenDaines introduced 38 bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress. View Bills » Compare to all Senate Freshmen (77th percentile); Senate Republicans (41st percentile); All Senators (41st percentile). |
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Ranked the 11th bottom/follower compared to Senate RepublicansOur 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 the 114th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Daines’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Senate Freshmen (54th percentile); Senate Republicans (19th percentile); All Senators (20th percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 10th fewest bills compared to All Senators (tied with 4 others)In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 4 of Daines’s 38 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 114th Congress. Compare to all Senate Freshmen (31st percentile); Senate Republicans (13th percentile); All Senators (9th percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the 9th least often compared to All Senators (tied with 7 others)1 of Daines’s bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress 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: S. 3402: Stop Online Booking Scams Act … Compare to all Senate Freshmen (23rd percentile); Senate Republicans (9th percentile); All Senators (8th percentile). |
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Ranked 15th most politically right compared to All SenatorsOur 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 the 114th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Daines’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all Senate Freshmen (69th percentile); Senate Republicans (72nd percentile); All Senators (85th percentile). |
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Got the 21st fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to All Senators (tied with 1 other)Daines’s bills and resolutions had 108 cosponsors in the 114th Congress. 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 (62nd percentile); Senate Republicans (20th percentile); All Senators (20th percentile). |
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Laws EnactedDaines introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 114th Congress. 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). 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 Out of CommitteeMost bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Daines introduced 4 bills in the 114th Congress 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 …; S. 2283: Small Business Broadband Deployment Act …; S. 3014: Tribal Forestry Participation and Protection … Compare to all Senate Freshmen (54th percentile); Senate Republicans (28th percentile); All Senators (45th percentile). |
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Bills CosponsoredDaines cosponsored 229 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 (62nd percentile); Senate Republicans (57th percentile); All Senators (39th percentile). |
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Joining Bipartisan BillsOf the 229 bills that Daines cosponsored, 24% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all Senate Freshmen (62nd percentile); Senate Republicans (65th percentile); All Senators (38th 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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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Daines supported any of 22 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 (46th percentile); Senate Republicans (52nd percentile); All Senators (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 the 114th Congress) 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.
