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Rep. Trent Franks’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Arizona's 8th District
Republican
Served Jan 3, 2013 – Dec 8, 2017

These year-end statistics cover Franks’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 Franks’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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Joined bipartisan bills the 2nd least often compared to Arizona Delegation

Of the 259 bills that Franks cosponsored, 8% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (11th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (17th percentile); House Republicans (43rd percentile); Safe House Seats (26th percentile); All Representatives (24th percentile).

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

Ranked 3rd 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 Franks’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (78th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Republicans (94th percentile); Safe House Seats (96th percentile); All Representatives (97th percentile).

 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 7th 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. 64% of Franks’s 14 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (67th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (92nd percentile); House Republicans (86th percentile); Safe House Seats (93rd percentile); All Representatives (91st percentile).

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

Cosponsored the 10th most bills compared to House Republicans

Franks cosponsored 259 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 Arizona Delegation (56th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (80th percentile); House Republicans (96th percentile); Safe House Seats (81st percentile); All Representatives (82nd percentile).

 

Ranked the 13th 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 Franks’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (78th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (96th percentile); House Republicans (95th percentile); Safe House Seats (97th percentile); All Representatives (97th percentile).

 

Supported government transparency the 13th most often compared to House Republicans (tied with 10 others)

GovTrack looked at whether Franks supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Franks 2 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Franks cosponsored H.R. 653: FOIA Act; H.R. 4177: Stop Foreign Donations Affecting Our …

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Republicans (91st percentile); Safe House Seats (62nd percentile); All Representatives (65th percentile).

 

Got bicameral support on the 14th most bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 13 others)

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 6 of Franks’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. 530: Expressing support for the goals …; H.R. 308: Keep the Promise Act of …; H.R. 788: Foreign Earnings Reinvestment Act; H.R. 1540: Sanction Iran, Safeguard America Act …; H.R. 2922: Adoptive Family Relief Act; H.R. 3504: Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (67th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (94th percentile); House Republicans (94th percentile); Safe House Seats (94th percentile); All Representatives (94th percentile).

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

Got the 32nd most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives

Franks’s bills and resolutions had 491 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 Arizona Delegation (67th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (89th percentile); House Republicans (92nd percentile); Safe House Seats (92nd percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

 

Held the 54th most committee positions compared to All Representatives (tied with 14 others)

Franks held a leadership position on 0 committees and 2 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 Franks’s Profile »

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (78th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (66th percentile); House Republicans (81st percentile); Safe House Seats (84th percentile); All Representatives (85th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 51st most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 45 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Franks introduced 2 bills in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 308: Keep the Promise Act of …; H.R. 1073: CIPA

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (67th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (72nd percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); Safe House Seats (77th percentile); All Representatives (78th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Franks introduced 1 bill that became law in 2015. 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. 2922: Adoptive Family Relief Act

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (67th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Republicans (79th percentile); Safe House Seats (82nd percentile); All Representatives (82nd 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 Introduced

Franks introduced 14 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (44th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (59th percentile); House Republicans (73rd percentile); Safe House Seats (69th percentile); All Representatives (70th percentile).

 

Powerful Cosponsors

3 of Franks’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. 36: Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act; H.R. 2922: Adoptive Family Relief Act; H.R. 3504: Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (33rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (54th percentile); House Republicans (65th percentile); Safe House Seats (61st percentile); All Representatives (62nd percentile).

 

Missed Votes

Franks missed 2.4% of votes (17 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Franks’s Profile »

Compare to all Arizona Delegation (44th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (51st percentile); Safe House Seats (58th percentile); All Representatives (61st 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.

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.