These statistics cover Waters’s record during the 117 th Congress (Jan 3, 2021-Jan 3, 2023) and compare her to other representatives also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Feb 12, 2023.
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 Waters’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.
Waters held a leadership position on 1 committee and 0 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 Waters’s Profile »
Compare to all California Delegation (91 st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (78 th percentile); House Democrats (85 th percentile); All Representatives (87 th percentile).
Of the 264 bills that Waters cosponsored, 4% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills »
Compare to all California Delegation (9 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (13 th percentile); House Democrats (22 nd percentile); All Representatives (12 th percentile).
Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic.
Waters missed 2.9% of votes (29 of 998 votes) in the 117th Congress. View Waters’s Profile »
Compare to all California Delegation (87 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (81 st percentile); All Representatives (82 nd 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.
Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Waters introduced 16 bills in the 117th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.
Compare to all California Delegation (96 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (96 th percentile); House Democrats (96 th percentile); All Representatives (98 th percentile).
Waters cosponsored 264 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 California Delegation (17 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (29 th percentile); House Democrats (10 th percentile); All Representatives (32 nd percentile).
In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 4 of Waters’s 38 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Waters caucused with in the 117th Congress.
Compare to all California Delegation (15 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (19 th percentile); House Democrats (10 th percentile); All Representatives (24 th percentile).
Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic.
Waters introduced 4 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 117th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. View Enacted Bills »
Compare to all California Delegation (87 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (88 th percentile); House Democrats (83 rd percentile); All Representatives (90 th 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.
The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 3 of Waters’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.
Compare to all California Delegation (23 rd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (32 nd percentile); House Democrats (18 th percentile); All Representatives (35 th percentile).
Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service.
Waters’s bills and resolutions had 727 cosponsors in the 117th 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 California Delegation (75 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (78 th percentile); House Democrats (76 th percentile); All Representatives (87 th percentile).
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 117th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Waters’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.
Compare to all California Delegation (70 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (75 th percentile); House Democrats (72 nd percentile); All Representatives (85 th percentile).
7 of Waters’s bills and resolutions in the 117th 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.
Compare to all California Delegation (64 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (74 th percentile); House Democrats (73 rd percentile); All Representatives (82 nd percentile).
Waters introduced 38 bills and resolutions in the 117th Congress. View Bills »
Compare to all California Delegation (68 th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (79 th percentile); House Democrats (73 rd percentile); All Representatives (82 nd percentile).
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 117th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Waters’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.
Compare to all California Delegation (42 nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (30 th percentile); House Democrats (45 th percentile); All Representatives (23 rd percentile).
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 117th Congress) was the 117 th Congress (freshmen) or 116 th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.
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