It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
 | Sponsorship and Cosponsorship Activity Levels of U.S. Senators, 2007-2008 |
When we elect people to the United States Senate, we’re sending them to Washington to do something about the problems that face this country. To be sure, there are many different ideas about what the problems are that face this country and how those problems should be addressed, but it is the job of a U.S. Senator to do something on Capitol Hill, not just sit on his or her thumb.
There are different sorts of activities that Senators can carry out, including behind the scenes district work advocating for individual citizens in trouble and procedural leadership through party and committee. Today I’d like to focus on another sort of activity, one which isn’t dedicated to individual constituents or to helping the Senate as an institution. I’d like to focus on the writing of and support for laws that change our nation’s policies. Bills before the Senate have principal sponsors who are responsible for their introduction, and they also gain cosponsors, Senators who add momentum by formally signaling their support for a bill.
Here are the number of bills sponsored or cosponsored by members of the United States Senate (as of the morning of April 30, 2008) in the 110th Congress of 2007-2008:
Sponsorships and Cosponsorships by Senators, ordered from least to most activity:
Senator Richard Shelby: 22
Senator Mitch McConnell: 51
Senator Bob Corker: 62
Senator Robert Byrd: 63
Senator Judd Gregg: 65
Senator Robert Bennett: 67
Senator Jim DeMint: 78
Senator Christopher Bond: 84
Senator Jon Kyl: 88
Senator John McCain: 90
Senator Ben Nelson: 101
Senator John Warner: 101
Senator John Sununu: 103
Senator Jim Bunning: 107
Senator James Webb: 107
Senator Sam Brownback: 108
Senator Tom Coburn: 108
Senator Thomas Carper: 109
Senator Jeff Sessions: 113
Senator John Ensign: 116
Senator Lindsey Graham: 116
Senator Herb Kohl: 118
Senator Lamar Alexander: 119
Senator Richard Lugar: 120
Senator Mike Crapo: 122
Senator Harry Reid: 122
Senator Kent Conrad: 127
Senator John Thune: 127
Senator Wayne Allard: 128
Senator Michael Enzi: 129
Senator Orrin Hatch: 129
Senator George Voinovich: 131
Senator Pat Roberts: 133
Senator Charles Grassley: 134
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison: 138
Senator Claire McCaskill: 140
Senator Richard Burr: 141
Senator Elizabeth Dole: 142
Senator James Inhofe: 142
Senator Lisa Murkowski: 142
Senator Jay Rockefeller: 146
Senator Evan Bayh: 149
Senator Mel Martinez: 151
Senator Max Baucus: 157
Senator Jon Tester: 163
Senator Larry Craig: 164
Senator Mark Pryor: 165
Senator Saxby Chambliss: 168
Senator David Vitter: 169
Senator John Cornyn: 170
Senator Jack Reed: 170
Senator Ted Stevens: 171
Senator Pete Domenici: 175
Senator Charles Hagel: 177
Senator Ron Wyden: 184
Senator Joseph Biden: 188
Senator Byron Dorgan: 188
Senator Thad Cochran: 190
Senator Bill Nelson: 190
Senator Amy Klobuchar: 199
Senator Daniel Akaka: 209
Senator Robert Casey: 209
Senator Daniel Inouye: 213
Senator Arlen Specter: 214
Senator Russell Feingold: 217
Senator Benjamin Cardin: 218
Senator Carl Levin: 223
Senator Blanche Lincoln: 225
Senator Johnny Isakson: 228
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: 238
Senator Patrick Leahy: 247
Senator Barbara Mikulski: 251
Senator Tom Harkin: 259
Senator Patty Murray: 261
Senator Ken Salazar: 263
Senator Mary Landrieu: 265
Senator Debbie Stabenow: 265
Senator Gordon Smith: 266
Senator Maria Cantwell: 288
Senator Christopher Dodd: 292
Senator Frank Lautenberg: 293
Senator Dianne Feinstein: 295
Senator Tim Johnson: 295
Senator Norm Coleman: 301
Senator Bernie Sanders: 302
Senator Joseph Lieberman: 305
Senator Jeff Bingaman: 308
Senator Susan Collins: 316
Senator Barack Obama: 323
Senator Robert Menendez: 331
Senator Edward Kennedy: 333
Senator Olympia Snowe: 364
Senator Charles Schumer: 374
Senator Barbara Boxer: 416
Senator Sherrod Brown: 424
Senator Richard Durbin: 432
Senator Hillary Clinton: 464
Senator John Kerry: 469
[Notes: Senator Trent Lott and Senator Craig Thomas are not listed because they have left the Senate by resignation and death, respectively. Their replacements are not included because their limited time in the Senate has restricted their potential for activity. These are the standard Senate bills that begin S.___, not resolutions declaring the “Sense of the Senate” but lacking the force of enforceable law.]
74.5% of Democratic Senators are located in the top half of the activity rankings, and 76.6% of Republican Senators are located in the bottom half of the activity rankings. Of the presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton is the most active in sponsorship and cosponsorship activity, with Barack Obama not far behind and also in the list of the ten most active Senators. What about John McCain? He hasn’t mustered a mere fifth of the activity of Hillary Clinton. It not just that he’s missing votes, even with no primary opponent left in the presidential race. He’s not working on or advocating legislation, either. John McCain is one of Washington, DC’s least active Senators.
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How is it that you find this either insightful or shocking?
Activist Democrats pursue activist policies and bills that spend money. Conservative Republicans get elected to stop activist Democrats from spending money. This goes straight to each party’s base political philosophy: Democrats believe government to be the solution to public ills; Republicans believe government to be the problem and that the private sector to be the only solution. The number of bills they sponsor or co-sponsor is directly correlative. Unfortunately, there are few reasonable members of either end of the spectrum that see the wisdom (and fiscal sanity) in accepting that both extreme sides have it a little right and a little wrong. Kerry’s 469 co-sponsored bills, if actually passed, would add trillions of dollars to our (children’s) debt while Shelby’s thumb-twiddling, spend nothing (except on military adventures and my pet projects) routine fails to address real problems that demand government action — like a war that’s costing billions every month, a bankrupt social security system, a nonexistent national energy policy, misguided federal handouts to agribusinesses, etc. etc etc. There’s got to be some middle ground on this, yes?
Comment by Bill Johnson — 4/30/2008 @ 1:35 pm
Did I say I find it shocking? Your word.
Actually, a fair part of what conservative Republicans have been active on is writing bills that would extend government authority over individual liberty, and you’re right on target when you say that Republicans ARE actually big spenders when it comes to military procurement… which is an ever-larger part of our nation’s budget.
Comment by Jim — 4/30/2008 @ 1:39 pm
Bill, you said, “Republicans believe government to be the problem and that the private sector to be the only solution.”
That’s nonsense. What’s the biggest discretionary spending? Military, by far. Who’s promoting spending 170 billion dollars, in addition to the in-budget Pentagon spending? Who’s promoting that big government spending?
Republicans - and their policies of big government militarism have failed.
The middle ground is actually the progressive way:
1. Stop the bleeding of trillions of dollars from unnecessary wars and corrupt military spending.
2. Reinvest in the American nation with appropriate spending that increases Americans’ standard of living.
Comment by Patricia — 4/30/2008 @ 2:16 pm