U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS)
The Center for Effective Lawmaking recently released its rankings from the 117th Congress. See how Mississippi’s delegation ranked.
According to the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a partnership between the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, Mississippi’s senior U.S. Senator Roger Wicker was among the most effective Republican lawmakers in D.C. for the 117th Congress.
Senator Wicker ranked 7th on the list of most effective Republican Senators, specifically as it pertains to legislation regarding public lands and technology. He also made the list of those Republican Senators “Exceeding Expectations” for the fourth Congress in a row.
“Some members of Congress attain the status of being a top-ten lawmaker within their party quite infrequently, rising onto the list due to their position as a committee chair or as a Senator seeking legislative accomplishments prior to a tough election battle. For others, effective lawmaking is a way of life,” the Center’s report states. “Those who are continuously members of this category are truly remarkable and worth watching.”
The Center notes that Senator Wicker is among the group of Republican Senators who have continued their patterns of being highly effective lawmakers regardless of whether their party controls the chamber, which “speaks well to the prospects of continued effective lawmaking emerging from both sides of the aisle over the next two years” in the 118th Congress.
Of the 53 substantive bills the Center notes that were proposed or sponsored by Wicker, 12 received action in committee, 13 saw action beyond committee, 6 passed in the Senate and 5 became law.
The most effective Republican U.S. Senator in the 117th Congress, according to the Center, was Sen. John Cornyn from Texas while the most effective Democratic Senator was Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan.
Senator Wicker is the only member of the Mississippi delegation in either the Senate or the House who made it near the top of the Center’s effectiveness lists. Mississippi’s other U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith ranked 50 among the 50 Republican Senators as none of the 6 bills she proposed saw action.
Congressman Michael Guest (MS-3) ranked the highest among the state’s three Republican members, coming in at 44 out of 222 GOP members. One of the 12 substantive bills he proposed became law. Congressman Trent Kelly (MS-1) was 140th while then-Congressman Steven Palazzo (MS-4) ranked 177th. None of Kelly or Palazzo’s substantive bills were acted on.
Mississippi’s lone Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson (MS-2) was ranked 88 among his 232 colleagues. Of the 8 substantive bills Thompsons proposed, half saw committee action and passed the chamber, but none became law.
The most effective Republican and Democratic members in the U.S. House last Congress were Reps. Don Bacon (R) from Nebraska and Gerry Connolly (D) from Virginia.
The Center provides the rankings based on the combination of fifteen metrics regarding the bills that each member of Congress sponsors, how far they move through the lawmaking process, and how substantial their policy proposals are. The scores are normalized to an average value of 1.0 in both the House and the Senate.
To learn more about the Center’s methodology in its rankings, click here.
