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How Do Virginia Lawmakers Rate?

Virginia lawmakers are asking you to put them back in office on November fourth but how effective have they been? A look at the bills passed this session. 

You probably won’t be surprised to hear, this Congress is the least active in the nation’s history. Only 181 bills have been passed and then signed into law in the past two years. But how do Virginia lawmakers rate? Of bills that are now laws, our state’s lawmaker’s were the lead sponsors of only two - giving them just 1% of the laws passed. Northern Virginia Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly has introduced 24 bills and none are law. 

“It’s very difficult as a Democrat in a Republican-controlled House given the rules here to actually have a bill - a substantive bill you introduce, you know, get through the process, but it’s not impossible.”

Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith introduced fourteen bills and -again - none are law. But a bill he introduced did become a part of legislation to increase inspections at drug compounding factories. 

“But how we did it was - is that there was a problem, and members working across the aisle said, okay, this is a problem. It doesn’t have a philosophical bent to it that would cause any of us a major problem.”

Griffith says looking at a members output based on bills signed into law is flawed, because party leaders have undercut the committee process. 

“There has been so much power ceded in both houses to the leadership that they don’t see things happening in an organic way, as it was designed.” 

So how can you tell if your lawmaker deserves reelection? Norm Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, says the test is easy: can they work across the aisle.

“I believe the screen the voters ought to use is the screen of problem solving. Do you have a lawmaker or a candidate whose major interest is coming to Washington to help solve problems that face the nation at home or abroad."

The two Virginia lawmakers who were able to get their bills signed into law are Democratic Senator Mark Warner - who sponsored a bill to shed light on government spending - and Republican Bob Goodlatte - whose name is attached to a reauthorization of legislation to collect data on rape victims.