Every Current U.S. Senator, Ranked by the Legislative Record (2026)
The 85 sitting senators with a full scored record in the most recently completed Congress, ranked by a composite of laws produced, legislative effectiveness, and attendance.
How this ranking works
This ranking scores current U.S. senators, verified against the Senate's official roster in July 2026, on the most recently completed Congress with full published data: the 118th Congress (January 3, 2023 to January 3, 2025). Three named sources supply every number. First, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL), a joint project of Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, which published Legislative Effectiveness Scores for the 118th Congress in March 2025. Second, GovTrack.us 2024 Report Cards, which count the bills each senator introduced that became law, including bills whose language was incorporated into other laws. Third, GovTrack.us missed-vote statistics for the same Congress.
The composite index runs 0 to 100. Seventy percent of the index is lawmaking output: a senator's laws-enacted count divided by the chamber-leading 24 (Gary Peters). Thirty percent is attendance: 100 minus the senator's missed-vote percentage. Where two senators tie, the published CEL Legislative Effectiveness Score breaks the tie. The formula is disclosed in full because no official government score of senator performance exists; this index is an analytical construction from named public datasets, and readers can recompute every value.
The per-senator subscores shown on each card are the real components that produced the rank. Four meters read for every top-15 senator: the CEL Legislative Effectiveness Score (chamber average 1.0, capped at a 10-point meter so the record-setting Peters score reads on scale), laws enacted (out of the chamber-leading 24), attendance (100 minus missed-vote percentage), and cross-party cosponsorship (GovTrack's percentage of a senator's cosponsorships that went to the other party's bills). Every one of those values is drawn from the same three datasets and is traceable to the sources list.
Fifteen sitting senators are excluded because they did not serve the full 118th Congress in the Senate and therefore have no complete scored record: Alsobrooks, Armstrong, Banks, Blunt Rochester, Curtis, Gallego, Husted, Justice, Kim, McCormick, Moody, Moreno, Schiff, Sheehy, and Slotkin. Oklahoma's Markwayne Mullin resigned in March 2026 and is likewise absent, replaced by the appointed Alan Armstrong, who has no scored record either. That leaves 85 ranked senators; the top 20 and bottom 5 are listed.
The framework deliberately ignores party, ideology, media presence, speeches, and fundraising. It pays no attention to whether a senator's laws were large or popular, only that Congress.gov and GovTrack record them as enacted. Committee work and constituent service are real but unmeasured here, and the methodology says so plainly.
1Gary PetersDemocrat, Michigan99.8
24 of his bills became law, the most of any senator, and he missed 0.6 percent of votes. CEL rated him the most effective senator of the 118th Congress with a score of 10.6, his third straight Congress at the top of his party (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Peters posted a Legislative Effectiveness Score of 10.648, the highest CEL has recorded for any senator in the fifty years the project has tracked the Senate, on 152 bills introduced, 34 passed, and 15 signed as standalone law with language from roughly ten more folded into enacted vehicles (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 118th Congress Highlights, 2025). His office confirmed 15 standalone bills signed into law and a 0.6 percent missed-vote rate (Peters Senate office, December 2024; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
2John CornynRepublican, Texas84.7
19 laws enacted, the most of any Republican, with a 2.4 percent missed-vote rate. CEL ranked him the most effective Senate Republican for the second Congress in a row (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Cornyn introduced 107 bills, passed 21 through the Senate, enacted 7 as standalone law, and placed language from 12 more into vehicles like the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, earning a CEL score of 6.562, the top Republican mark for the second straight Congress (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 118th Congress Highlights, 2025).
3Alex PadillaDemocrat, California49.0
7 laws enacted and a 4.6 percent missed-vote rate. CEL rated him the second most effective Senate Democrat and the top first-term senator exceeding expectations (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Padilla scored 2.875, second among Senate Democrats, sponsoring 92 bills with language from measures like the Fusion Energy Act of 2024 carried into law, and CEL named him the top first-term senator in the Exceeds Expectations category (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; Padilla Senate office, 2025).
4Amy KlobucharDemocrat, Minnesota47.0
6 laws enacted from 116 bills introduced, with a 1.6 percent missed-vote rate. CEL placed her third among Senate Democrats (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Klobuchar introduced 116 bills across a deliberately wide policy range, passed 6 through the Senate, and enacted 3, earning a CEL score of 2.189, third among Senate Democrats, with one of the chamber's stronger attendance records at 1.6 percent missed (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
5Deb FischerRepublican, Nebraska44.4
5 laws enacted and a 0.6 percent missed-vote rate, one of the best attendance records in the chamber. CEL scored her sixth among Senate Republicans at 1.495 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Fischer enacted 5 sponsored bills and missed only 0.6 percent of votes, among the best attendance in the Senate, while CEL scored her 1.495, sixth among Senate Republicans and rated a moderate with six Congresses of seniority (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
6Jeff MerkleyDemocrat, Oregon43.8
5 laws enacted with 2.5 percent of votes missed. CEL ranked him fifth among Senate Democrats with a score of 1.915 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Merkley enacted 5 sponsored bills as a subcommittee chair and scored 1.915, fifth among Senate Democrats, though only 16.2 percent of his cosponsorships crossed the aisle, showing effectiveness and bipartisanship are separable (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
7Mark WarnerDemocrat, Virginia43.8
5 laws enacted and a 2.6 percent missed-vote rate while serving as Intelligence Committee chairman (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Warner enacted 5 sponsored bills and missed 2.6 percent of votes while chairing the Select Committee on Intelligence, a post whose classified oversight work the enacted-law count does not capture (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
8Jeanne ShaheenDemocrat, New Hampshire43.4
5 laws enacted with 3.8 percent of votes missed (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Shaheen enacted 5 sponsored bills and missed 3.8 percent of votes across the 118th Congress, a full-record output that places her in a nine-way cluster of senators with five enacted laws (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
9Mike RoundsRepublican, South Dakota43.1
5 laws enacted with 5.0 percent of votes missed. CEL placed him fifth among Senate Republicans at 1.530, which breaks his tie at this line (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Rounds enacted 5 sponsored bills counting incorporated language and scored 1.530, fifth among Senate Republicans; his published CEL score breaks his identical composite tie with Chris Coons (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
10Chris CoonsDemocrat, Delaware43.1
5 laws enacted with 5.0 percent of votes missed, an identical composite to Rounds; Rounds holds the published CEL top-ten score (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Coons enacted 5 sponsored bills and missed 5.0 percent of votes, producing a composite identical to Mike Rounds; the tie falls to Rounds because Coons has no published CEL top-ten score to break it (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
11Rick ScottRepublican, Florida42.2
5 laws enacted despite an 8.1 percent missed-vote rate. CEL scored him ninth among Senate Republicans at 1.291 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Scott enacted 5 sponsored bills counting incorporated language and scored 1.291, ninth among Senate Republicans, but an 8.1 percent missed-vote rate pulls his composite below the five-law cluster above him (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
12Tammy BaldwinDemocrat, Wisconsin41.5
4 laws enacted and just 0.4 percent of votes missed, among the chamber's best attendance (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Baldwin enacted 4 sponsored bills and missed only 0.4 percent of votes, one of the two or three best attendance records of any senator in the 118th Congress (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
13Chuck GrassleyRepublican, Iowa41.5
4 laws enacted with 0.7 percent of votes missed, in his fifth decade of Senate service (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Grassley enacted 4 sponsored bills and missed 0.7 percent of votes in his fifth decade in the Senate, and 42.1 percent of his cosponsorships crossed the aisle, a top-twelve bipartisanship figure (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
14Catherine Cortez MastoDemocrat, Nevada41.2
4 laws enacted with 1.5 percent of votes missed. CEL ranked her seventh among Senate Democrats at 1.676 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Cortez Masto enacted 4 sponsored bills, missed 1.5 percent of votes, and scored 1.676 as a subcommittee chair, seventh among Senate Democrats (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
15John HickenlooperDemocrat, Colorado41.0
4 laws enacted with 2.1 percent of votes missed (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Hickenlooper enacted 4 sponsored bills and missed 2.1 percent of votes in his first full Congress, a record that places him at the top edge of the four-law tier (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
16Joni ErnstRepublican, Iowa40.0
4 laws enacted with 5.4 percent of votes missed. CEL placed her eighth among Senate Republicans at 1.343 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Ernst enacted 4 sponsored bills and scored 1.343, eighth among Senate Republicans, though a 5.4 percent missed-vote rate lowers her composite below the higher-attendance four-law senators (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
17Ted CruzRepublican, Texas39.1
4 laws enacted with 8.5 percent of votes missed. CEL rated him the third most effective Senate Republican at 2.258, but the attendance and output components pull his composite down (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Cruz earned the third-highest Republican CEL score, 2.258, largely as ranking member and incoming chair of the Commerce Committee, yet he enacted only 4 bills and missed 8.5 percent of votes, and just 18.3 percent of his cosponsorships crossed the aisle (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
18Jacky RosenDemocrat, Nevada38.7
3 laws enacted and only 0.3 percent of votes missed. CEL listed her ninth among Senate Democrats at 1.565 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Rosen enacted 3 sponsored bills, missed only 0.3 percent of votes, and scored 1.565, ninth among Senate Democrats and one of the top three first-term senators in the Exceeds Expectations category (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
19James LankfordRepublican, Oklahoma38.5
3 laws enacted with 0.7 percent of votes missed. CEL scored him seventh among Senate Republicans at 1.358 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Lankford enacted 3 sponsored bills, missed 0.7 percent of votes, and scored 1.358, seventh among Senate Republicans, in a Congress where he also negotiated the border package the Senate declined to pass (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
20Martin HeinrichDemocrat, New Mexico38.5
3 laws enacted with 0.9 percent of votes missed (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Heinrich enacted 3 sponsored bills and missed 0.9 percent of votes, an attendance figure in the top handful of the chamber, closing out the listed top twenty (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
81Tommy TubervilleRepublican, Alabama27.8
Zero bills he introduced became law in the 118th Congress, and he missed 7.2 percent of votes (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Tuberville converted zero of his sponsored bills into law across two full years and missed 7.2 percent of votes, a combination that places him in the bottom five of scored current senators (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
82Bernie SandersIndependent, Vermont27.2
Zero of his sponsored bills became law and he missed 9.4 percent of votes; his chairmanship of the HELP Committee is not captured by these two measures (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Sanders, among the most recognized names in American politics, saw zero sponsored bills become law and missed 9.4 percent of votes; his chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee shaped other members' bills in ways the enacted-law count does not capture (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
83Thom TillisRepublican, North Carolina26.8
Zero sponsored bills became law and he missed 10.7 percent of votes (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Tillis cosponsored across the aisle 41.7 percent of the time, a top-twelve bipartisanship figure, yet zero of his own sponsored bills became law and he missed 10.7 percent of votes, showing cross-party joining does not guarantee enacted output (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
84Kevin CramerRepublican, North Dakota26.6
Zero sponsored bills became law and he missed 11.2 percent of votes (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Cramer enacted zero sponsored bills and missed 11.2 percent of votes, one of the ten highest missed-vote rates among senators who served the full 118th Congress (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
85Tim ScottRepublican, South Carolina26.4
One sponsored bill became law and he missed 21.6 percent of votes, the highest rate among full-term senators, a period that overlapped his 2024 presidential campaign (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
The receipts: Scott enacted one sponsored bill and missed 21.6 percent of votes, the worst attendance of any senator who served the full Congress, accumulated in large part during his 2024 presidential run; the framework scores votes cast, not the reasons for absence (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
Click any entry to open its full scorecard, sub-scores, and the receipts.
Most bills enacted into law, 118th Congress (current senators)
What the record shows
The framework pays no attention to which party a senator belongs to. It counts two things any citizen can verify: bills that became law and votes actually cast. On those measures, the 118th Congress had one clear leader. Gary Peters of Michigan saw 24 of his sponsored bills become law, counting language folded into larger vehicles, while missing 0.6 percent of votes (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). The Center for Effective Lawmaking gave Peters a Legislative Effectiveness Score of 10.648, more than ten times the chamber average of 1.0, and noted it was his third consecutive Congress atop his party (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 118th Congress Highlights, 2025). By Peters's own office's stricter count, 15 standalone bills he authored were signed into law (Peters Senate office, December 2024).
John Cornyn of Texas led Republicans with 19 laws from 107 bills introduced, and CEL ranked him the most effective Senate Republican for the second straight Congress with a score of 6.562 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025). The top two spots are not close. Third place Padilla produced 7 laws; the gap between second and third is larger than the gap between third and twentieth.
Effectiveness and celebrity are different jobs
The senators with the largest national profiles mostly do not appear near the top. Ted Cruz carries the third highest Republican effectiveness score, 2.258, yet lands 17th here because he missed 8.5 percent of votes and converted 4 bills into law (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). Bernie Sanders, among the most recognized names in American politics, saw zero sponsored bills become law in the 118th Congress and missed 9.4 percent of votes (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). If that result surprises readers, the receipts are one click away. The discomfort belongs to the reader, not the data.
The reverse is also true. Deb Fischer, Mike Rounds, and James Lankford rarely lead cable segments, yet each pairs enacted laws with attendance above 94 percent. CEL's research finding, repeated in its 118th Congress report, is that bipartisan coalition builders are consistently more effective than partisan warriors, even inside the majority party (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025).
How the three measures fit together, and why the weights are what they are
The composite runs 70 percent on enacted laws and 30 percent on attendance, with the Center for Effective Lawmaking's scores breaking ties and validating the order. The weighting is a judgment, disclosed rather than hidden, and it was chosen for a simple reason: enacting law is the job, and showing up is the precondition for the job. Readers should know how sensitive the result is to that choice. It is not very sensitive at the top. Peters ranks first and Cornyn second under any weighting that gives enacted laws at least a fifth of the index, because their output leads are enormous: 24 and 19 laws against a third-place total of 7 (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). The middle of the table compresses: senators with four or five enacted laws sit within a few points of one another, and a different weighting would shuffle ranks 5 through 20 by a handful of places without moving anyone from the top tier to the bottom or back.
The CEL scores serve as an independent check because they are built differently: fifteen metrics tracking every sponsored bill's substance and progress, normalized to a chamber average of 1.0 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, Methodology). The two systems agree where they overlap. Every current senator in CEL's published top-ten party tables lands in this composite's top 20, and no senator in the composite's bottom five appears anywhere in CEL's published leader lists. When two independent rulers measure the same thing and produce the same shape, the shape is probably real.
Reading a senator's card
The four meters on each top-fifteen card are the raw components, and reading them together explains a rank better than any single number. Peters fills every meter: a 10.648 CEL score, 24 laws, 99.4 percent attendance, and 54.3 percent cross-party cosponsorship (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). Cornyn is close behind on effectiveness and output but lower on cross-party joining at 39.1 percent, a reminder that a senator can be enormously productive without being the chamber's most bipartisan (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). Then look at Jeff Merkley: fifth among Senate Democrats on effectiveness at 1.915 with 5 enacted laws, yet only 16.2 percent of his cosponsorships crossed the aisle (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). The cards make the trade-offs visible instead of hiding them inside a single composite score.
The bipartisanship meter is included on the cards but is not part of the composite that sets the rank; it is context. A separate report on this site ranks senators by cross-party cosponsorship directly. Here it earns a meter so readers can see, at a glance, whether a senator's effectiveness was built with the other party or around it. The answer varies more within each party than between them.
The bottom of the table
Four of the bottom five recorded zero sponsored bills enacted across two full years. Tim Scott of South Carolina sits last among the 85 scored senators: one law and a 21.6 percent missed-vote rate, the worst attendance of any senator who served the full Congress, accumulated in large part during his 2024 presidential run (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). John Fetterman missed 21.2 percent of votes, much of it during a documented hospitalization for depression in early 2023, and still landed above the bottom five on the strength of two enacted laws; context matters, and the numbers are reported without adjustment either way (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
Campaigning explains several high missed-vote figures. It does not erase them. A senator who is absent casts no vote, and the framework scores votes, not reasons. Thom Tillis illustrates the other bottom-five pattern: he cosponsored across the aisle 41.7 percent of the time, more than most of the top twenty, and still enacted nothing under his own name (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards). Bipartisan intentions and enacted statutes are different measurements, and this table scores the second.
Who is not ranked, and why
Fifteen sitting senators took office in 2025 or 2026, or served only weeks of the 118th Congress, and have no complete scored record: the 2024 election class (Banks, Blunt Rochester, Alsobrooks, Curtis, Gallego, Justice, McCormick, Moreno, Sheehy, Slotkin), the appointees who replaced members joining the executive branch (Husted of Ohio, Moody of Florida, and Armstrong of Oklahoma, appointed after Markwayne Mullin resigned in March 2026), plus Adam Schiff and Andy Kim, who were sworn in early in December 2024 to fill unexpired terms (U.S. Senate roster, July 2026; Washington Post, March 24, 2026). Schiff's GovTrack missed-vote figure of 47.8 percent covers only weeks of Senate service and would mislead if ranked alongside full-term colleagues, so it is excluded rather than explained away.
They will be scored when the 119th Congress data is complete. Only actions matter, and they have not yet had time to act.
A note on timing for readers checking the sources: GovTrack's 2024 Report Cards were computed as of February 13, 2025 and cover the complete 118th Congress; the CEL scores for the same Congress were released March 24, 2025. Both datasets are final. Career patterns visible across editions add confidence in the snapshot: Cornyn also led all members of Congress in enacted sponsored bills in the 117th Congress, Peters topped his party's CEL table for the third consecutive Congress, and Collins has recorded perfect or near-perfect attendance for years, so the 118th numbers are not flukes of one two-year window (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards).
Highest missed-vote rates among current full-term senators, 118th Congress
How this has moved
The top of this table is not a one-Congress accident. Gary Peters has finished as his party's most effective senator for three consecutive Congresses, and in the 116th he posted the highest Senate score of any member while in the minority party, a feat CEL says appears nowhere else in data reaching back to 1973 (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025). John Cornyn has led all Senate Republicans on the CEL score for two Congresses running and topped all members of Congress in enacted sponsored bills in the 117th (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025). When the same two names lead across multiple editions, the ranking is measuring a durable pattern, not a lucky window.
The 119th Congress that began in January 2025 opened with a measurable effectiveness drain. Five senators who appeared in CEL's published 118th top-ten party tables have since left: Jon Tester lost reelection, Tom Carper retired, Bob Menendez resigned, Marco Rubio became Secretary of State, and Mike Braun became governor of Indiana (Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025; U.S. Senate roster, July 2026). Fifteen new senators arrived in 2025 and 2026 without scored records, and Oklahoma's seat turned over again in March 2026 when Markwayne Mullin resigned to lead the Department of Homeland Security and Governor Kevin Stitt appointed Alan Armstrong (Washington Post, March 24, 2026). The membership shifted once more on July 11, 2026, when Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who served the full 118th Congress, died in office at age 71; Governor Henry McMaster will appoint an interim successor pending a special election, so the seat's scored record is frozen at Graham's while the appointee starts from zero (Washington Post, July 12, 2026).
None of that movement changes the 118th snapshot, which is final: GovTrack computed its 2024 Report Cards as of February 13, 2025, and CEL released the 118th scores on March 24, 2025 (GovTrack, 2024 Report Cards; Center for Effective Lawmaking, 2025). It does mean the next edition of this ranking, built on 119th Congress data, will look different at the margins even if the shape at the very top holds.
Legislative Effectiveness Scores of the top current senators (chamber average = 1.0)
What the evidence settles
The evidence settles that lawmaking output is measurable and extremely unequal. Gary Peters and John Cornyn produced more enacted legislation in the 118th Congress than the bottom forty senators combined, a fact drawn directly from GovTrack's enacted-law counts and confirmed by the Center for Effective Lawmaking's independent scoring. It is also settled that national fame and legislative output are weakly related: several of the most televised senators enacted nothing.
What remains contested
The weighting is legitimately contested. This index counts enacted bills and attendance, so it undervalues committee chairs who shape other members' bills, floor leaders who rarely sponsor legislation by custom, and oversight work that produces no statute. Reasonable people also disagree about whether bills incorporated into larger vehicles should count equally with standalone laws, and whether absences for illness or a presidential campaign deserve the same treatment. The inputs are public; readers who prefer different weights can rebuild the table.
Questions people ask
Who is the most effective U.S. senator right now?
By the most recent complete data, Gary Peters of Michigan. He had 24 sponsored bills become law in the 118th Congress per GovTrack and earned the Senate's highest Center for Effective Lawmaking score, 10.648, released in March 2025, the highest recorded for any senator in the fifty years CEL has tracked the chamber.
Which senator missed the most votes?
Among senators who served the full 118th Congress and are still in office, Tim Scott of South Carolina missed 21.6 percent of votes, followed by John Fetterman at 21.2 percent, per GovTrack. Adam Schiff's higher figure covers only a few weeks of Senate service and is excluded.
How can senator performance be measured objectively?
No official government score exists. This ranking combines three named public datasets: enacted-law counts and missed-vote rates from GovTrack.us, and Legislative Effectiveness Scores from the Center for Effective Lawmaking at Vanderbilt and UVA. The formula is disclosed so anyone can recompute it.
Why are some senators missing from this ranking?
Fifteen current senators took office in 2025 or 2026, or joined in December 2024, and did not serve the full 118th Congress. They have no complete scored record yet, so they are excluded rather than guessed at. Oklahoma's Alan Armstrong, appointed in March 2026 after Markwayne Mullin resigned to lead Homeland Security, is among them.
What do the meters on each senator's card mean?
They are the real components behind the rank: the CEL Legislative Effectiveness Score (chamber average 1.0), laws enacted out of the chamber-leading 24, attendance (100 minus missed-vote percentage), and cross-party cosponsorship from GovTrack. Every value is drawn from the same public datasets used to build the composite.
Sources
- Center for Effective Lawmaking (Vanderbilt University and University of Virginia), Highlights from the New 118th Congress Legislative Effectiveness Scores, March 2025 https://thelawmakers.org/legislative-effectiveness-scores/highlights-from-the-new-118th-congress-legislative-effectiveness-scores
- Center for Effective Lawmaking, 118th Congress Highlights report (PDF mirror hosted by Rep. Lawler's office), March 24, 2025 https://lawler.house.gov/uploadedfiles/118th_highlights_final_03_24_2025.pdf
- GovTrack.us, 2024 Report Cards, All Senators, Laws Enacted (118th Congress) https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/report-cards/2024/senate/bills-enacted-ti
- GovTrack.us, 2024 Report Cards, All Senators, Missed Votes (118th Congress) https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/report-cards/2024/senate/missed-votes
- GovTrack.us, 2024 Report Cards, All Senators, Joining Bipartisan Bills (cross-party cosponsorship) https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/report-cards/2024/senate/cosponsored-other-party
- Vanderbilt University, Legislative gridlock did not stop lawmaking, March 27, 2025 https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2025/03/27/legislative-gridlock-did-not-stop-lawmaking/
- UVA Frank Batten School, Legislative Effectiveness Scores for 118th Congress Highlight the Keys to Successful Lawmaking, 2025 https://batten.virginia.edu/about/news/legislative-effectiveness-scores-118th-congress-highlight-keys-successful-lawmaking
- Office of Sen. Gary Peters, Peters Rated The #1 Most Effective U.S. Senator For Third Congress In A Row, March 2025 https://www.peters.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/peters-rated-the-1-most-effective-us-senator-for-third-congress-in-a-row
- Office of Sen. Gary Peters, 118th Congress in Review: 15 standalone bills signed into law, December 2024 https://www.peters.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/118th-congress-in-review-senator-peters-continues-to-deliver-for-michigan-authored-and-was-principal-sponsor-of-15-standalone-bills-signed-into-law
- Washington Post, Oklahoma executive Alan Armstrong to temporarily fill Mullin's Senate seat, March 24, 2026 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/24/mullins-senate-replacement-armstrong/
- Washington Post, Lindsey Graham, longtime South Carolina senator, dies at 71, July 12, 2026 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/07/12/lindsey-graham-longtime-south-carolina-senator-dies-71/
- U.S. Senate, official roster of current senators (membership verified July 2026) https://www.senate.gov/senators/
- Wikipedia, List of current United States senators (cross-check of 2025-2026 membership changes) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_senators
- Center for Effective Lawmaking, Methodology https://thelawmakers.org/methodology
Parker, T. E. (2026). Every Current U.S. Senator, Ranked by the Legislative Record (2026). US Political Rank. https://uspoliticalrank.com/rankings/senators-ranked-2026<iframe src="https://uspoliticalrank.com/embed/senators-ranked-2026" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius:8px" title="Every Current U.S. Senator, Ranked by the Legislative Record (2026)" loading="lazy"></iframe>Keep reading
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