Contacts: 
Craig Volden, University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy; cv4w@virginia.edu
Alan Wiseman, Vanderbilt University, Department of Political Science;  alan.wiseman@vanderbilt.edu

In its 5th biennial report on the effectiveness of U.S. senators and representatives, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) has identified the most effective lawmakers of the 118th Congress. 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.
•    The influence of committees 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 re-election 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 D.C. 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,” said Wiseman, a professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt and co-director of the CEL.

“Effective lawmaking takes hard work, policy expertise, and a willingness to seek out coalition partners, often across party lines,” said Craig Volden, a professor of public policy and politics at UVA Batten and co-director of the CEL. “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 report can be found here.

For its biennial analysis, the CEL 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. Its reports build upon data dating back to 1973.

The center did note that the lawmaking capacity of the Senate may be strained in the years ahead as many of the legislators who consistently rank high in their lawmaking effectiveness are no longer in Congress for various reasons. The CEL ranks legislators who “exceed expectations” as those who outperform their benchmark Legislative Effectiveness Scores by 50% 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 the 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 Democrats:
•    Sen. Gary Peters (MI), Sen. Alex Padilla (CA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN)
Top 3 Senate Republicans:
•    Sen. John Cornyn (TX), Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (TX)
Top 3 representatives with the longest streak of “Exceeds Expectations”:
•    Del. Eleanor Norton (D-DC), Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Top 3 freshmen 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 CEL is a non-partisan collaboration between the Batten School and Vanderbilt 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 counts nearly  40 scholars from universities, colleges, and think tanks around the country as faculty affiliates.