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Rep. Tom Emmer’s 2016 Report Card

Representative from Minnesota's 6th District
Republican
Serving Jan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2025

These statistics cover Emmer’s record during the 114th Congress (Jan 6, 2015-Jan 3, 2017) and compare him to other representatives 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 Emmer’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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Ranked most politically right compared to Minnesota Delegation

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 the 114th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Emmer’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (88th percentile); House Freshmen (80th percentile); House Republicans (68th percentile); All Representatives (82nd percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 2nd most often compared to Minnesota Delegation

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Emmer introduced 3 bills in the 114th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 3340: Financial Stability Oversight Council Reform …; H.R. 4425: To designate the facility of …; H.R. 4850: Micro Offering Safe Harbor Act

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (75th percentile); House Freshmen (67th percentile); House Republicans (52nd percentile); All Representatives (69th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 2nd least often compared to Minnesota Delegation

Of the 260 bills that Emmer cosponsored, 12% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (13th percentile); House Freshmen (45th percentile); House Republicans (57th percentile); All Representatives (32nd percentile).

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

Got influential cosponsors the 2nd least often compared to Minnesota Delegation (tied with 1 other)

1 of Emmer’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: H.R. 3340: Financial Stability Oversight Council Reform …

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (13th percentile); House Freshmen (21st percentile); House Republicans (13th percentile); All Representatives (14th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 3rd fewest bills compared to Minnesota Delegation

Emmer cosponsored 260 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 Minnesota Delegation (25th percentile); House Freshmen (53rd percentile); House Republicans (63rd percentile); All Representatives (44th percentile).

 

Introduced the 7th most bills compared to House Freshmen (tied with 3 others)

Emmer introduced 19 bills and resolutions in the 114th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (50th percentile); House Freshmen (85th percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); All Representatives (63rd percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Emmer introduced 1 bill 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. View Enacted Bills »

Those bills were: H.R. 4425: To designate the facility of …

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (38th percentile); House Freshmen (44th percentile); House Republicans (45th percentile); All Representatives (49th 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.
 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 2 of Emmer’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.Res. 868: Honoring the life of Jacob …; H.R. 3238: Cuba Trade Act of 2015

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (38th percentile); House Freshmen (64th percentile); House Republicans (44th percentile); All Representatives (41st percentile).

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

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 6 of Emmer’s 19 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in the 114th Congress.

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (50th percentile); House Freshmen (74th percentile); House Republicans (52nd percentile); All Representatives (52nd percentile).

 

Committee Positions

Emmer 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 Emmer’s Profile »

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (0th percentile); House Freshmen (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

 

Cosponsors

Emmer’s bills and resolutions had 154 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 Minnesota Delegation (38th percentile); House Freshmen (64th percentile); House Republicans (40th percentile); All Representatives (38th percentile).

 

Leadership Score

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 the 114th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Emmer’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (38th percentile); House Freshmen (73rd percentile); House Republicans (40th percentile); All Representatives (48th percentile).

 

Missed Votes

Emmer missed 1.2% of votes (16 of 1,325 votes) in the 114th Congress. View Emmer’s Profile »

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (38th percentile); House Freshmen (39th percentile); All Representatives (27th 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 Emmer supported any of 40 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Emmer 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Emmer cosponsored H.R. 653: FOIA Act; H.R. 5493: EDIT Act

Compare to all Minnesota Delegation (38th percentile); House Freshmen (56th percentile); House Republicans (81st percentile); All Representatives (52nd 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.