WASHINGTON – Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick were the most bipartisan members of Congress last year, according to a newly released analysis from the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
The least bipartisan member of the House was Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio, while Katie Britt of Alabama, a freshman Republican, ranked last among senators.
The newest Ranking One of the most bipartisan legislative sessions comes in the midst of one of the least productive Congresses in the country’s history and just months before nearly all House members and about a third of the Senate face voters in November.
Maria Cancian, dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy, wrote in a statement announcing the up-to-date rankings: “While there is much room for improvement, I am encouraged to see some progress in bipartisan collaboration.”
“In these deeply divided times and with an increasing amount of misleading information online, we need tools like the Bipartisan Index more than ever – an evidence-based and bipartisan approach to measuring how well policymakers at all levels work together to get things done. Cancian wrote.
Dan Diller, policy director for the Lugar Center, wrote that it was “particularly disheartening that all eight new senators who took office in January 2023 were in the bottom 30 percent of Senate results.”
“Bipartisan collaboration on legislation in 2023 has been historically lacking, although there have been some modest improvements in outcomes compared to the previous Congress,” Diller wrote.
The rankings website states that the “bipartisan index is designed to fill a gap in the information available to the public about the performance of members of Congress.”
The Lugar Center, founded by the delayed U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, “is a platform for informed debate and analysis of global issues, including nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, global food security, foreign aid effectiveness, global development, energy security and improvement.” of bipartisan governance,” the website says.
The rankings take into account “the frequency with which a member of Congress supports bills that are co-sponsored by at least one member of the opposing party” and “the frequency with which a member co-sponsors bills introduced by members of the opposing party.”
Who is the most bipartisan?
The top ten senators were:
- Collins
- Gary Peters, Democrat from Michigan
- Maggie Hassan, Democrat from New Hampshire
- Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia
- Texas Republican John Cornyn
- Jacky Rosen, Democrat from Nevada
- Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
- Kansas Republican Jerry Moran
- Republican Todd Young of Indiana
- Jon Tester, Democrat from Montana
The top ten members of the House of Representatives were:
- Fitzpatrick
- New York Republican Marcus Mill
- Chris Pappas, Democrat from New Hampshire
- New York Republican Mike Lawler
- North Carolina Democrat Don Davis
- Republican Delegate from Puerto Rico, Jenniffer Gonzalez-Columbus
- Nevada Democrat Susie Lee
- Nebraska Republican Don Bacon
- Josh Gottheimer, Democrat from New Jersey
- Iowa Republican Zach Nunn
The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University wrote on their website that their “goal in publishing this index is not to promote a particular legislative agenda, as is the case with many indices, but simply to “Promoting a bipartisan approach to governance.”
“The credibility of the index comes from the objectivity of its methodology; Index values are calculated using formulas from publicly available data,” it says. “The index does not require a subjective assessment of specific legislative points.”
The least bipartisan members of the House after Jordan were New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Missouri Democrat Cori Bush, New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman and Missouri Republican Eric Burlison.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, ranked 423rd but will likely be excluded from future ratings because he has held one of the top two leadership posts for at least six months now.
The least bipartisan senators after Britt were Republican Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Washington state Democrat Patty Murray, Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Republican Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
