Senator Braun ranked the most effective first-term Republican Senator, the top ten most effective Republican in Senate by the nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking

WASHINGTON – The nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking has released its 117th Congress (2021-2022) rankings today with high rankings for Senator Mike Braun.

Senator Mike Braun

Senator Braun made the Top Ten List for Most Effective Senate Republicans at number 6. The Senators above him on the list have all served over 12 years in Congress; Senator Braun has served 4.

  • Senator Braun was the highest-ranked Republican on the “Freshman Senators Exceeding Expectations” list.  
  • In individual policy areas, Senator Braun was ranked the Most Effective Republican Senator in Agriculture and the Most Effective Republican Senator in Health.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking made special mention of Senator Braun’s legislative effectiveness in their report:

Craig Volden

“Also new to our top-10 list is Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, who first entered the Senate in the previous 116th Congress. Though relatively junior, Sen. Braun introduced 80 bills, 20 of which engaged with health policy. He ultimately saw four of his bills pass the Senate, and three of them become law,” said Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman, Co-Directors, Center for Effective Lawmaking.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking is a nonpartisan research organization directed through a partnership between the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University. Their effectiveness ratings for lawmakers are widely cited among the Capitol Hill press.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking was the same research group that previously ranked Senator Braun’s predecessor as the least effective Democrat in the Senate.

The Senators ranked ahead of Senator Braun in effectiveness and have been in Congress for 20 years, 12 years, 12 years, 42 years, and 20 years, respectively.
Senator Braun was the highest-ranked Republican on the “Freshman Senators Exceeding Expectations”.
Senator Braun was also ranked the Most Effective Republican Senator in these issue areas:
Agriculture, Health, and Welfare

Senator Braun made this statement on his rankings:

“I told Hoosiers I would get to work and get results, and that’s what I’ve done every day since I left my business to go work for you in the Senate. I’m proud to be one of the Top Ten Most Effective Republicans in the Senate, and the Most Effective Republican in Agriculture and Health, two issues that matter so much for Indiana,” said Senator Mike Braun.

For more information on the bills Senator Braun authored that have become law, see his 2022 Solutions Update: https://www.braun.senate.gov/working-hoosiers.

Center for Effective Lawmaking Methodology:

Legislative Effectiveness Scores

To calculate the Legislative Effectiveness Score for each member of the U.S. House and Senate, we draw on fifteen indicators that collectively capture the proven ability of a legislator to advance the agenda items through the legislative process and into law.

More specifically, to calculate Legislative Effectiveness Scores for the House, we identify the number of bills that each member of the House of Representatives sponsored (BILL); and the number of those bills that received any action in committee (AIC), or action beyond committee (ABC) on the floor of the House. For those bills that received any action beyond committee, we also identify how many of those bills subsequently passed the House (PASS), and how many became law (LAW).

We categorize all bills as being either commemorative (C), substantive (S), or substantive and significant (SS). Our categorization is based on the following coding protocol. A bill is deemed substantive and significant if it was introduced during the 93rd – 113th Congresses, and had been the subject of an end-of-the-year write-up in the Congressional Quarterly Almanac. For bills that were introduced into the 114th to 116th Congresses, a bill is deemed substantive and significant if it was mentioned on two or more occasions in the stories published in Congressional Quarterly Weekly/CQ Magazine during that Congress. For bills that were introduced into the 117th Congress and subsequent congresses, a bill is deemed substantive and significant if it was mentioned on two or more occasions in the stories published in Congressional Quarterly Weekly/CQ Magazine during that Congress, identified as the subject of a key vote by Project Vote Smart, and/or discussed in the Fact Sheets in the CQ House section of CQ.com.

Center for Effective Lawmaking Rankings Report: