Bernie Sanders Flexes His Muscles By Introducing Bill To Create 13 Million New Jobs

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78. In 2013 he was near the very bottom in introducing bills with a bipartisan cosponsor

In 2013, Bernie was fourth highest in the Senate with the number of bills introduced (49). But he was near the bottom in having co-sponsors from the other side of the aisle on those bills. Only one committee chair or ranking member introduced a lower percentage of bills with a sponsor from the other party (David Vitter). Only two Senators with ten or more years of service introduced a lower percentage of bills with bipartisan cosponsorship. And only 4 Senators overall introduced a lower percentage of bills with cosponsors from both parties.

Of the nearly 50 bills Bernie introduced in 2013, two became law. But one was merely to name a post office. The other was the Veterans' Compensation Cost of Living Adjustment Act. Not surprisingly, that was one of the few bills he introduced that had bi-partisan cosponsorship.

The 2013 Senate was a historically unproductive Senate. Only 13 bills introduced in the Senate became law. It is to Bernie's credit that one of those bills was his. And it is to his credit that he got strong bipartisan co-sponsorship on the bill. More than half of the bills that passed had at least one original co-sponsor from each party. Where a bill passed without bi-partisan co-sponsorship, it often was a bill of limited parochial interest, such as Tim Johnson's Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Boundary Modification Act (which passed without any repub co-sponsorship).

As I said, I like Bernie a lot. And it is true that most Senators have pretty poor records of actually getting things passed this days. But I also recognize that the reason to celebrate Bernie's introduction of a bill usually has more to do with sending a message than any actual effort to get legislation enacted and folks should recognize that fact and not get overly excited about the prospect of Bernie's bills getting enacted.