Snopes: Do Sens. Warren, Booker, Harris and Sanders Pass Fewer Bills Than Other Senators?

[Autumn]

This discussion thread is pinned.

Posting in the Sanders group for discussion and reference. to Omaha Steve for posting this in the primaries forum.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/128733336

What's True
Only a fraction of the proposed bills sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Bernie Sanders ( D-VT) have been passed by Congress.

What's False
This phenomenon is not unique to these four senators (as only a very small fraction of all proposed legislation ends up being passed), and the statistics included in the meme are outdated.

A text meme supposedly showcasing the legislative records of various 2020 Democratic presidential candidates — Elizabeth Warren (MA), Cory Booker (NJ), Kamala Harris (CA), and Bernie Sanders (VT) — circulated on social media in March 2019 along with comments about how these lawmakers were ineffective at their jobs for their failure to pass more than a scant handful of bills:

FULL story here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/democratic-senators-pass-bills-rate/

[INdemo]

1. What was the purpose of your post when any Democrat in the Senate would not be able to

get a bill even to the floor for a vote without extreme difficulty?
So why even post this.Were you trying to trash the Democratic Senators running for the Democratic Presidential nomination? It appears that is the case.

[Autumn]

2. Because it gives details on four of our Democratic candidates, one of which is Bernie Sanders

and this is a group to discuss Bernie Sanders and his actions. Can you explain how posting about the success rate in passing legislation by four of our Democratic Senators, who are all candidates, is trashing them? When you read the article it shows that even with this GOP controlled Senate they did very well.

[INdemo]

3. Well its obvious that in this Republican controlled Senate and with the current Majority

Leader M. McConnell whose main objective is to make sure that not one bill that is introduced by a Democrat ever makes it to the Senate floor for a vote. So with that reasoning and facts it was pretty much a senseless OP

[Omaha Steve]

4. You would be surprised at the number of times this came up in the last cycle about Bernie

Last edited Thu Mar 21, 2019, 05:56 AM - Edit history (1)

This was a preemptive nip in the bud,

OS

[Autumn]

5. Did you even read the article and look at the stats? If you did you should see that your

reasoning and facts are wrong.

[INdemo]

6. Well here we are 11 or 12 months away from the Iowa caucus and

here on DU one would/could think its next week.

[Autumn]

7. Time has nothing to do with your assertion that the OP is senseless. They did get bills

passed in the Senate.

Star Member INdemo (6,591 posts)

3. Well its obvious that in this Republican controlled Senate and with the current Majority

Leader M. McConnell whose main objective is to make sure that not one bill that is introduced by a Democrat ever makes it to the Senate floor for a vote. So with that reasoning and facts it was pretty much a senseless OP

[CentralMass]

8. Bernie has also been called the ammendment king for the high number of ammendments that he was able

to get passed as a congressman earlier in his career and later as a Senator.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/mar/24/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-was-roll-call-amendment-king-1995-2/