Rep. John Ratcliffe

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 Report Card for Ratcliffe.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Ratcliffe is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2020 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Ratcliffe sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Dec 28, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Ratcliffe was the primary sponsor of 7 bills that were enacted:

• H.R. 5987 (116th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 909 West Holiday Drive in Fate, Texas, as the “Ralph Hall Post Office”.
• H.R. 5988 (116th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2600 Wesley Street in Greenville, Texas, as the “Audie Murphy Post Office Building”.
• H.R. 1986 (116th): Effective Prosecution of Possession of Biological Toxins and Agents Act of 2019
• H.R. 3238 (116th): Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act
• H.R. 343 (116th): Lake Fannin Conveyance Act
• H.R. 1616 (115th): Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act of 2017
• H.R. 5877 (114th): United States-Israel Advanced Research Partnership Act of 2016

View All »

Does 7 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Ratcliffe sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Crime and Law Enforcement (32%) Government Operations and Politics (24%) Science, Technology, Communications (11%) Emergency Management (11%) Economics and Public Finance (8%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (5%) Finance and Financial Sector (5%) Environmental Protection (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Ratcliffe recently introduced the following legislation:

• H.R. 5987 (116th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at …
• H.R. 5988 (116th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at …
• H.R. 4237 (116th): Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act
• H.R. 3238 (116th): Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act
• H.R. 1986 (116th): Effective Prosecution of Possession of Biological Toxins and Agents Act of 2019
• H.R. 1927 (116th): Separation of Powers Restoration Act of 2019
• H.J.Res. 51 (116th): Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2015 to May 2020, Ratcliffe missed 189 of 3,345 roll call votes, which is 5.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.3% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in May 2020. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

• unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
• The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills