Every two years (like elections for the U.S. House of Representatives), Alan Wiseman, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science in the College of Arts and Science, and University of Virginia Professor of Public Policy and Politics Craig Volden, produce a report on the effectiveness of U.S. senators and representatives from each session of Congress immediately after it ends. The reports build upon data going back to 1973.
The researchers, who together co-direct the Center for Effective Lawmaking, have identified the most effective lawmakers of the 118th Congress in the fifth iteration of the report. They found that— whether in the minority or majority party, and regardless of ideology—legislators were able to find ways to get their initiatives passed into law despite deep political and procedural disruptions in 2023 and 2024, and despite widespread public perception of gridlock in the nation’s Capitol.
Among the findings:
- Several high-performers succeeded in advancing bipartisan policy proposals, despite ongoing partisan conflicts in Congress.
- Committee influence continues to decline while power is centralized in the majority-party leadership, undermining expertise and effective lawmaking for the Congress as a whole.
- Women legislators in the minority party in the House are among the most effective lawmakers in their party.
- Senators who are up for reelection are among the most effective lawmakers in their chamber.
- Performance in a legislator’s freshman term is highly correlated with their subsequent lawmaking effectiveness.
“Over a two-year period when party conflicts outside of Washington spilled over into the House and Senate, and when the House struggled to conduct its day-to-day business due to leadership challenges, numerous legislators in both parties—several of whom we have identified in previous CEL reports—continued to engage with the hard work of lawmaking and successfully advance their sponsored bills through the legislative process to enact new public policies,” Wiseman said.
The report uses a combination of 15 metrics capturing how far sponsored bills advance in the legislative process, including whether they ultimately become law, and the relative substantive significance of each bill.
The researchers draw on these data to undertake a wide range of research projects organized around three main themes:
- Identification: What are the backgrounds and characteristics of individuals who, if they were to run for legislative office and win, would likely become highly effective lawmakers?
- Cultivation: What can individual legislators do to become more effective as lawmakers, and what institutional reforms would make Congress or state legislatures more effective overall?
- Accountability: When do voters hold their representatives accountable for their ability (or inability) to effectively address policy challenges?
The center aims to present insights from the research to practitioners, including members of Congress, Congressional staff and good governance organizations, by providing them with data-driven insights regarding what factors contribute to and/or detract from the ability of members of Congress to advance their policy goals.
The center also publishes a new members’ guide that provides legislators and their staff with a collection of best practices in lawmaking effectiveness, drawn from the analysis of more than 50 years of data.
“We are hopeful we can be viewed as an unbiased resource to help policymakers and those interested in governance and governing capacity understand how to strive to achieve their goals in a representative democracy,” Wiseman said.
Results from the 118th Congress
“Effective lawmaking takes hard work, policy expertise, and a willingness to seek out coalition partners, often across party lines,” Volden said. “The legislators featured in our report and highlighted as top performers found ways to address public policy needs during difficult circumstances. Their work is to be commended.”
The CEL ranks legislators who “exceed expectations” as those who outperform the center’s benchmark Legislative Effectiveness Scores by 50 percent or more. Senators with the longest streak in this category are Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI). With Sen. Rubio now serving as secretary of state and Sen. Peters announcing his retirement following the 119th Congress, the center noted: “The Senate has lost a notable degree of lawmaking capacity, in comparison to more recent congresses, such that it is less obvious as to who will serve as the most prominent legislative leaders in future years.”
Other top-ranking legislators in the 118th Congress
Top 3 House Republicans:
- Rep. Sam Graves (MO-6)
- Rep. Don Bacon (NE-2)
- Rep. Tom Cole (OK-4)
Top 3 House Democrats:
- Rep. Joaquin Castro (TX-20)
- Rep. Joe Neguse (CO-2)
- Rep. Dina Titus (NV-1)
Top 3 Senate Republicans:
- Sen. John Cornyn (TX)
- Sen. Marco Rubio (FL)
- Sen. Ted Cruz (TX)
Top 3 Senate Democrats:
- Sen. Gary Peters (MI)
- Sen. Alex Padilla (CA)
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN)
Top 3 representatives with the longest streak of “Exceeds Expectations”:
- Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
- Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Top 3 freshman representatives “Exceeding Expectations”:
- Rep. Michael Lawler (R-NY)
- Rep. Marcus Molinaro (R-NY)
- Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ)
Top 3 first-term senators “Exceeding Expectations”:
- Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA)
- Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN)
- Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
About the Center for Effective Lawmaking
The Center for Effective Lawmaking is a nonpartisan collaboration between the University of Virginia’s Batten School and Vanderbilt University that was created in 2017 to advance the generation, communication and use of new knowledge about the effectiveness of individual lawmakers and U.S. legislative institutions. The center includes nearly 40 scholars from universities, colleges and think tanks around the country as faculty affiliates.
