Out of 435 U.S. House members, Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse came in top of the class for the 117th congress, at least when it came to getting bills signed into law, according to the website GovTrack.us.
The Boulder Democrat had 13 bills passed into law, either as stand-alone legislation or incorporated into larger packages, a record he said is reflective of a Colorado ethos of “rolling up our sleeves, finding ways to build bridges and work with people who might have a different worldview than your own to get things done.”
Neguse added he’s made it a priority to deliver results for the communities he represents, “so that means to me finding ways to get bills across the finish line, onto the president’s desk, [and] to pass laws that ultimately are going to have an impact on people’s lives here at home.”
And he credited both his legislative and district teams’ work on the bills.
Neguse’s enacted bills covered the gamut from updating the filing fees for corporate mergers to adding Camp Amache to the National Park System to renaming a post office for the police officer killed in the Boulder King Soopers attack.
GovTrack pulled together a wide range of numbers to create report cards for lawmakers who served from January 3, 2021, to January 3, 2023. “We present these statistics for you to understand the quantitative aspects of legislating and make your own judgments based on what legislative activities you think are important,” it said on the site.
The report cards do not look at other aspects of being a member of Congress, such as constituent services or oversight activities.
When it came to getting bills into law, Neguse was followed closely by Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon, who had 11. Democratic Rep. Jason Crow was the next closest in the Colorado delegation, with 9 bills becoming law, while Reps. Ken Buck and Ed Perlmutter each had one a-piece.
When it came to legislation introduced, once again the more recently elected members from Colorado put forward the largest number of bills.
Again, Neguse and Crow topped the list with 99 and 54 bills respectively. Freshman GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced 41 bills, followed by Buck at 25, Perlmutter at 18, Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette at 16 and Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn at 12. Overall, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced the largest number of bills, at 132, while GovTrack found two lawmakers did not introduce any (one was elected in a special election held in November ‘22).
Neguse also co-sponsored more pieces of legislation than anyone else in the Colorado delegation, at 755, putting him in the 92nd percentile of all Representatives, while DeGette co-sponsored 501, Crow 475, Lamborn 356, Perlmutter 343, Boebert 332 and Buck 251, putting him at the 28th percentile.
As for securing co-sponsors for their bills, Crow topped that list for the state, getting the most at 1215. That put him at the 95th percentile of the House, followed by DeGette at 745, Neguse at 592, Boebert at 568, Lamborn at 270, Perlmutter at 209 and Buck at 179, putting him at the 33rd percentile.
The site also looked at how often lawmakers managed to write bipartisan bills, meaning they had a co-sponsor from the other party, Crow topped the list of the Colorado delegation, with 38 bipartisan bills, followed by Neguse at 32 and Buck at 11. Only Boebert had zero among the delegation.
And when it came to joining other members’ bipartisan bills, again Crow topped the list for the state, doing so about 22.3 percent of the time, while Buck did so 21.9 percent, Lamborn 14.6 percent, Neguse 14.1 percent, Perlmutter 7.6 percent, DeGette 5 percent and Boebert 2.1 percent of the time.
Other factors analyzed in the report cards included missed votes, how often lawmakers could attract powerful cosponsors, bills out of committee and committee positions.
