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Senator Masto’s 2018 Report Card

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s 2018 Report Card

Senior Senator from Nevada
Democrat
Serving Jan 3, 2017 – Jan 3, 2023


These statistics cover Cortez Masto’s record during the 115th Congress (Jan 3, 2017-Jan 3, 2019) and compare her to other senators also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 20, 2019.

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 Cortez Masto’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.

Got the 3rd fewest cosponsors on their bills compared to Senate Democrats

Cortez Masto’s bills and resolutions had 96 cosponsors in the 115th 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 (30th percentile); Senate Democrats (4th percentile); All Senators (7th percentile).


Got their bills out of committee the 3rd least often compared to Senate Democrats (tied with 1 other)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Cortez Masto introduced 3 bills in the 115th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: S. 3327: SENIOR Communities Protection ActS. 3511: Drone Safety Enhancement ActS. 3514: GREEN Vehicles at Airports Act

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (20th percentile); Senate Democrats (4th percentile); All Senators (5th percentile).


Got bicameral support on the 5th fewest bills compared to Senate Democrats

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 4 of Cortez Masto’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the House. 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: S. 1809: Moving FIRST ActS. 2770: Abuse of the Pardon Prevention …S. 3327: SENIOR Communities Protection ActS.Res. 428: A resolution recognizing the heritage, …

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (50th percentile); Senate Democrats (9th percentile); All Senators (10th percentile).

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


Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 8th fewest bills compared to Senate Democrats

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 11 of Cortez Masto’s 23 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Cortez Masto caucused with in the 115th Congress.

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (60th percentile); Senate Democrats (15th percentile); All Senators (16th percentile).


Held the 6th fewest committee positions compared to Senate Democrats (tied with 5 others)

Cortez Masto held a leadership position on 0 committees and 1 subcommittee, 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 Cortez Masto’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (60th percentile); Senate Democrats (11th percentile); All Senators (8th percentile).


Ranked the 9th bottom/follower compared to All Senators

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 115th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Cortez Masto’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (40th percentile); Senate Democrats (9th percentile); All Senators (8th percentile).


Supported government transparency the 9th most often compared to All Senators (tied with 4 others)

GovTrack looked at whether Cortez Masto supported any of 14 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave Cortez Masto 6 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Cortez Masto cosponsored S. 210: Global Health, Empowerment and Rights …S. 298: Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity ActS. 1989: Honest Ads ActS.Res. 323: STOP Sexual Harassment ResolutionS. 2159: ME TOO Congress ActS. 2236: Congressional Harassment Reform Act

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (70th percentile); Senate Democrats (77th percentile); All Senators (87th percentile).


Got influential cosponsors the 9th least often compared to Senate Democrats (tied with 6 others)

4 of Cortez Masto’s bills and resolutions in the 115th 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. 415: A bill to nullify the …S. 1809: Moving FIRST ActS. 2695: Inaugural Committee Transparency Act of …S.Res. 428: A resolution recognizing the heritage, …

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (50th percentile); Senate Democrats (17th percentile); All Senators (24th percentile).


Introduced the 11th fewest bills compared to All Senators (tied with 3 others)

Cortez Masto introduced 23 bills and resolutions in the 115th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (40th percentile); Senate Democrats (11th percentile); All Senators (10th percentile).


Bills Cosponsored

Cortez Masto cosponsored 341 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 (50th percentile); Senate Democrats (38th percentile); All Senators (68th percentile).


Missed Votes

Cortez Masto missed 1.7% of votes (10 of 599 votes) in the 115th Congress. View Cortez Masto’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (60th percentile); All Senators (62nd percentile).


Laws Enacted

Cortez Masto introduced 3 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 115th 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: S. 3327: SENIOR Communities Protection ActS. 3511: Drone Safety Enhancement ActS. 3514: GREEN Vehicles at Airports Act

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (40th percentile); Senate Democrats (43rd percentile); All Senators (36th 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.


Joining Bipartisan Bills

Of the 341 bills that Cortez Masto cosponsored, 27% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Senate Freshmen (50th percentile); Senate Democrats (26th percentile); All Senators (41st percentile).

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


Additional Notes

The Speaker’s Votes: Missed votes are not computed for the Speaker of the House. According to current House rules, the Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings.” In practice this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes but is not considered absent.

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 115th Congress) was the 115thCongress (freshmen) or 114th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.