Center for Effective Lawmaking Reveals Most Effective Lawmakers of the 117th Congress

The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) has published its ranking of the most effective lawmakers of the 117th Congress, the Daily Caller reported.

The CEL named Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) as the most effective House lawmakers in their respective parties. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) were listed as the most effective senators within their respective parties. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was a standout, also.

The CEL does not attempt to judge or place a value upon the desirability or effectiveness of a given bill, instead “us[ing] a data-driven approach to study each member of Congress’ ability to advance agenda items through the legislative process and into law … scores are based on a combination of 15 metrics regarding the bills that each Congress member sponsors, how far those bills move through the lawmaking process, and how substantial their policy proposals are.”

The CEL’s methodology also sought to control for whether a lawmaker’s party was in the minority or majority position (but not in their raw scores).

CEL personnel emphasized the evidence of cooperation and bipartisanship uncovered in their work. Other noteworthy findings include:

Committee chairs were less successful at sponsoring bills that became law than at any time since 1973, which is as far back as the CEL’s studies go.

Top Republican senators tended to outscore their Democratic counterparts despite the Republicans’ minority party status, which the CEL interpreted as an indication of the Senate’s institutional bipartisanship.

A strong performance among individual senators tended to remain intact across periods of time in which Senate control changed hands, reinforcing the previous notion and suggesting that legislative skills or temperaments translate between majority and minority party status. The CEL noted that the same held true for Connolly.

The CEL is a joint venture between Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, and its findings are released every other year following the conclusion of each Congress.