Hillary Clinton, Empty Pantsuit: Her Track Record from the Senate

Before we begin, let's consider some definitions of leadership and effectiveness in the Senate.  Although there are many types of leadership in the Senate, I think we can all agree that sponsoring more bills that become law, all else being equal, is an indicator of influence and leadership.  Likewise, I think we can also agree that having a higher percentage of one's bills become law, all else being equal,  is an indicator of effectiveness.

As measured by these definitions, Hillary Clinton's leadership over her seven years in the Senate has been marginal, and her effectiveness over her Senate terms has been extremely poor.  In fact, she has a remarkably poor track record at turning her sponsored legislation into law, to the extent that she's an outlier among her Democratic colleagues.  Of 337 bills that Hillary has introduced, only 2 have become law.  These numbers are always lower than you'd think -- it isn't easy to get a bill passed -- but Hillary's batting average is especially poor.

Let's take a look at some detail.

GovTrack.us, an award-winning, non-partisan source of information on our legislators, has compiled a number of statistics related to bill sponsorship in the House and Senate.  These statistics go back to 1997, and include such things as the number of bills sponsored, the number of sponsored bills that go to committee, and the number of sponsored bills that are passed into law.  For the remainder of this analysis, I will be focusing solely on current senate Democrats who have completed at least one full term (I'm including Joseph Lieberman here, but not Bernie Sanders).  There are 3938 such Senators in all.  (The reason I'm excluding Republicans, FWIW, is that it's much easier to have one's bills become law when one's party controls the chamber, as the Republicans have for most of the past ten years.  Therefore, it isn't fair to any Democrat to compare their numbers to a Republican).

Hillary Clinton has introduced bills to the Senate at a blistering pace.  She has sponsored 337 bills in her Senate tenure so far, or an average of 288.9 per term.  This is the highest number of any of her Democratic cohorts:

1. Clinton - 288.9 bills sponsored per term (337 in 1.17 terms)

2. Feinstein - 288.8 bills sponsored per term (528 in 1.83 terms)

3. Schumer - 218.2 bills sponsored per term (400 in 1.83 terms)

4. Bingaman - 196.9 bills sponsored per term (361 in 1.83 terms)

5. Boxer - 180.0 bills sponsored per term (330 in 1.83 terms)

AVERAGE - 122.1 bills sponsored per term

37. Nelson/NE - 52.3 bills sponsored per term (61 in 1.17 terms)

38. Byrd - 28.4 bills sponsored per term (52 in 1.83 terms)

Unfortunately, very little of this legislation has moved.  Of Hillary's 337 bills, only 46 have made it to the Committee stage, giving her a 13.6% batting average; the typical Democrat has a 17.4% batting average.  In other words, Hillary Clinton has been relatively ineffective at getting her sponsored bills to Committee; she ranks 24 of the 39 Democrats in this department.

1. Byrd - 44.2% of bills sponsored went to committee (23 of 52)

2. Biden - 42.7% of bills sponsored went to committee (93 of 218)

3. Reid - 38.2% of bills sponsored went to committee (104 of 287)

4. Akaka - 28.9% of bills sponsored went to committee (71 of 246)

5. Kennedy - 25.8% of bills sponsored went to committee (83 of 322)

AVERAGE - 17.4% of bills sponsored went to committee

24. Clinton - 13.6% of bills sponsored went to committee (46 of 337)

36. Lincoln - 9.0% of bills sponsored went to committee (15 of 167)

37. Nelson/NE - 6.6% of bills sponsored went to committee (4 of 61)

38. Carper - 2.7% of bills sponsored went to committee (1 of 113)

Similarly, Hillary ranks poorly at converting bills that come out of Committee into law; only 2 of her 46 post-committee bills did so.  This ranks 29th out of 3938 Democrats.

1. Brown - 36.4% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (4 of 11)

2. Carper - 33.3% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (1 of 3)

3. Johnson - 30.0% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (6 of 20)

4. Wyden - 25.0% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (8 of 32)

5. Reed - 20.0% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (5 of 25)

AVERAGE - 9.8% of bills sponsored out of committee became law

29. Clinton - 4.3% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (2 of 46

36. Nelson/NE - 0.0% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (0 of 4)

36. Kohl - 0.0% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (0 of 12)

36. Nelson/FL - 0.0% of bills sponsored out of committee became law (0 of 26)

Combining these two things, we see that only 2 out of 337 bills she has sponsored have become law, or 0.6%.  This is one of the worst numbers among the Democrats:

1. Wyden - 4.8% of bills sponsored became law (8 of 165)

2. Johnson - 4.3% of bills sponsored became law (6 of 138)

3. Akaka - 4.1% of bills sponsored became law (10 of 246)

4. Brown - 3.7% of bills sponsored became law (4 of 109)

5. Reed - 3.0% of bills sponsored became law (5 of 146)

AVERAGE - 1.7% of bills sponsored became law

31. Clinton - 0.6% of bills sponsored became law (2 of 337)

36. Nelson/NE - 0.0% of bills sponsored became law (0 of 61)

36. Kohl - 0.0% of bills sponsored became law (0 of 130)

36. Nelson/FL - 0.0% of bills sponsored became law (0 of 133)

As a result, although Hillary has introduced bills at a faster pace than any of her colleagues, she has passed a below-average number of successful bills (e.g. bills that became law) -- just 2 over 7 years, or 1.7 per term.

1. Feinstein - 6.0 bills became law per term (11 in 1.83 terms)

2. Akaka - 5.5 bills became law per term (10 in 1.83 terms)

3. Bingaman - 4.9 bills became law per term (9 in 1.83 terms)

4. Dodd - 4.4 bills became law per term (8 in 1.83 terms)

4. Kennedy - 4.4 bills became law per term (8 in 1.83 terms)

4. Schumer - 4.4 bills became law per term (8 in 1.83 terms)

4. Wyden - 4.4 bills became law per term (8 in 1.83 terms)

AVERAGE - 2.1 bills become law per term

19. Clinton - 1.7 bills become law per term (2 in 1.17 terms)

36. Nelson/FL - 0.0 bills become law per term (0 in 1.17 terms)

36. Nelson/NE - 0.0 bills become law per term (0 in 1.17 terms)

36. Kohl - 0.0 bills become law per term (0 in 1.83 terms)

There are different types of senators.  There are those like Diane Feinstein that sponsor a lot of legislation, and get a lot of bills passed.  There are those like Robert Byrd and Ben Nelson that barely have a pulse, rarely introducing legislation and rarely getting it passed.  There are a couple like Ron Wyden and Daniel Akaka who rarely introduce legislation, but are efficient at converting it into law when they do.  And then there is Hillary Clinton, who introduces a ton of legislation, but has been very ineffective at making good on it.  This is easier to see visually; there is nobody else in her category.

Why does this happen to be the case?  There are two, fairly basic reasons.  One is that Hillary Clinton introduces a ton of softball legislation.  Some of this is throwaway legislation that is no doubt intended to provide for a photo opportunity or press release.  Here are some examples from the 109th Congress:

2. [109th] S.CON.RES.44 : A concurrent resolution permitting the use of the rotunda of the Capitol for a ceremony to honor Constantino Brumidi on the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 6/30/2005)      Cosponsors (4)
Committees: Senate Rules and Administration
Latest Major Action: 6/30/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.

3. [109th] S.CON.RES.113 : A concurrent resolution congratulating the Magen David Adom Society in Israel for achieving full membership in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 7/21/2006)      Cosponsors (15)
Committees: Senate Foreign Relations
Latest Major Action: 8/2/2006 Held at the desk.

6. [109th] S.RES.511 : A resolution commending and supporting Radio Al Mahaba, the 1st and only radio station for the women of Iraq.

Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 6/13/2006)      Cosponsors (1)
Committees: Senate Foreign Relations
Latest Major Action: 6/13/2006 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

71. [109th] S.3716 : A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 100 Pitcher Street in Utica, New York, as the "Captain George A. Wood Post Office Building".

Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 7/24/2006)      Cosponsors (1)
Committees: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Latest Major Action: 7/24/2006 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Note: For further action, see H.R.4962, which became Public Law 109-275 on 8/17/2006.

Likewise, there is a fair amount of pork.

13. [109th] S.490 : A bill to direct the Secretary of Transportation to work with the State of New York to ensure that a segment of Interstate Route 86 in the vicinity of Corning, New York, is designated as the "Amo Houghton Bypass".

Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 3/2/2005)      Cosponsors (2)
Committees: Senate Environment and Public Works
Latest Major Action: 3/2/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

19. [109th] S.970 : A bill to establish the African Burial Ground National Historic Site and the African Burial Ground International Memorial Museum in New York, New York, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 4/28/2005)      Cosponsors (1)
Committees: Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Latest Major Action: 4/28/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

43. [109th] S.2059 : A bill to establish the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain 400th Commemoration Commission, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 11/18/2005)      Cosponsors (3)
Committees: Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Latest Major Action: 11/18/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Almost all senators introduce bills like this from time to time, so Hillary is not unique in this regard.  She just happens to do it more often than anyone else.  (A cynic might also claim that she does this to increase her "bills sponsored" statistic for when nerds like me look at these sorts of numbers).

The second reason for this pattern may be that she lacks follow-through.  This could be for any number of reasons:

1. She is ineffective at articulating the importance of her positions in committees or on the Senate floor.

2. She lacks the collaborative skills to rally support around her legislation.

3. She is poorly organized, or unfocused.

4. She is more concerned about the symbolic trappings of her bills than their actual effect on Americans.

Whatever the reason, none of these attributes speak well to Hillary's leadership abilities.  As she is running a campaign themed leadership and competence, I think we need to scrutinize record, and ask why she has been mostly an empty pantsuit in the Senate.

For those people who are inclined to support Hillary, I would ask that you consider what specific actions in her Senate tenure give you confidence about her leadership abilities.  From what I can tell, while her votes in the Senate have generally gone the right away (excluding Iraq and Kyl-Liberman, naturally), she has demonstrated below-average leadership abilities.

Edit:
Looks like GovTrack was including data from Ben Cardin's House voting record in his statistics, and that's why he was included in the first version in spite of having been elected in 2006.  Cardin's now been removed.

Edit #2.  I should have included numbers for John Edwards and Barack Obama.

Obama has had 1 bill passed in 3 years in the Senate (2.0 per term)

Hillary has had 2 bills passed in 7 years in the Senate (1.7 per term)

Edwards had 0 bills passed in 6 years in the Senate. (0 per term, obviously)

So, pick your poison.  None of the three leading Dems do especially well in this category.  And obviously this isn't the only thing we should be considering in the POTUS race.  If we were, we'd all be voting for Joe Biden, and there would have been a "Draft Diane Feinstein" movement back in January.  

But Hillary is the one playing the experience card.  The intent of this diary is to point out that there is not so much evidence to back up her claim up.  

Edit #3  I've identified the two bills that Hillary sponsored that became public law.

S.1241 (108th Congress)
Title: A bill to establish the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in the State of New York, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 6/11/2003)      Cosponsors (1)
Related Bills: H.R.305
Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 108-438 [GPO: Text, PDF]
Senate Reports: 108-295

S.3613 (109th Congress)
Title: A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2951 New York Highway 43 in Averill Park, New York, as the "Major George Quamo Post Office Building".
Sponsor: Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] (introduced 6/29/2006)      Cosponsors (1)
Related Bills: H.R.5708
Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 109-311 [GPO: Text, PDF]

Not exactly big stuff.

By contrast, Obama's one bill is a little more substantive.

[109th] S.2125 : A bill to promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Sponsor: Sen Obama, Barack [IL] (introduced 12/16/2005)      Cosponsors (12)
Committees: Senate Foreign Relations; House International Relations
Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 109-456 [GPO: Text, PDF]