117th Congress Advocacy Scorecard
Introduction
The purpose of our first Congressional Scorecard — which we consider to be the beta version — is to determine how Members of Congress act on policies that impact patients. This card considers how elected officials vote on key issues that impact the patient community, whether or not they cosponsor legislation that will help patients, and if they signed onto letters expressing support for or opposition to an area that either helps or hurts patients respectively.
Methodology
Senate
PRN selected 6 votes, 5 bills, and 8 letters on which to grade Senators. If a Senator voted in line with PRN’s stance on the bill, cosponsored legislation that PRN supports, or signed a letter that PRN supports, they received the corresponding point value for each to contribute to their overall score. The point values totaled 99.5 points, and PRN rounded up by .05 for all scores to reach an even 100. The Senate policy criteria can be found here.
House of Representatives
PRN selected 14 votes, 8 bills, and 10 letters to grade Representatives. These categories totaled 100 points, not including extra credit. Unlike the upper chamber, there were two bicameral letter opportunities for House members to earn extra credit. Extra credit does not count against a House Member’s score. The House policy criteria can be found here.
Grades
Grades in both chambers were distributed on a bell curve. A total of 15% of Senators and Representatives received an A grade, 40% would received a B grade, 30% for a C grade, 10% for a D grade, and 5% for F grade. In the House of Representatives, if a Member of Congress was not in office for at least half of the votes (elected through special election, left office, or passed away), they were given a grade of not applicable (N/A).
Votes: Highest point value
- House: 4 points
- Senate: 12 points for policy votes and 6 points for nomination votes
Co-sponsorship Median point value:
- House: 3 points
- Senate: 5.5
Dear Colleague Lowest point value
- House: 2 points
- Senate 3 points
Extra Credit: Additional opportunity, does not count against members
- House: 1 point for each bicameral Dear Colleague letter and resolution
- Senate: No extra credit available
State by State Scorecards
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illiniois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
