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Fact check: Alan Grayson, amendments and legislative effectiveness
December 11, 2015
By Charles Aull
In an email to supporters on Tuesday, third-term Congressman Alan Grayson (D) sought to demonstrate his legislative efficacy by noting that in the past three years he has passed more than 50 amendments, a number that he claims exceeds that of any other member of Congress.
Grayson has made statements like this one before. In July, he stated, "In the past two years in Congress, I’ve written more bills, passed more amendments on the floor of the House and enacted more of my bills into law than any other member of the House."[1]
Our fellow fact-checkers at Politifact rated that claim “Mostly True.”[2]
With Grayson’s more recent claim, we found that he overstated some of the facts, but the gist of what he said holds up: Grayson has passed a lot of amendments. On the other hand, we spoke to a range of experts who suggested that passing a high number of amendments might not be all that significant.
Background
Alan Grayson is a third-term Democratic congressman, representing Florida’s ninth district. He was first elected in 2008 but lost re-election two years later. He returned to the House in 2013.
Grayson is currently running for an open U.S. Senate seat in Florida being vacated by Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio. He is one of four members of the Florida House delegation seeking the seat. The other three are Patrick Murphy (D), Ron DeSantis (R) and David Jolly (R).
Throughout the race, Grayson has sought to portray himself as a politician not only capable of getting things done but also as one who “wins.”
In an email to supporters on Tuesday, he stated:[3]
| “ | Here is your chance to help a leader who not only ‘fights’ to help you, but actually WINS those fights.
In the last three years, I have passed more than FIFTY amendments on the Floor of the House. That’s more amendments than any other Member of Congress, Democratic or Republican. That’s roughly ten times as many as my three Congressional opponents. They all could have done what I did to help you – and they didn’t. That’s why I deserve your support in my Senate race.[4] |
” |
We wondered if those numbers were true. Has Grayson passed more than 50 amendments since 2013, and is that more than any other member of Congress and 10 times more than his congressional opponents? Moreover, is the number of amendments a lawmaker has passed a useful indicator of effectiveness, or "winning," in Congress?
Amendments in Congress
Before getting into the facts of Grayson’s statement, we should first clarify what an amendment is. Grayson was referring not to constitutional amendments like the First Amendment, for example, but rather amendments to specific pieces of legislation as they move through Congress.
Congress.gov defines an amendment as “a proposed change to a pending text.”[5] According to the Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, this can include changes to specific words or phrases in a piece of legislation as well as the removal or addition of words or phrases.[6]
Amendments represent one of many different legislative activities that make up a lawmaker’s work, alongside casting votes, delivering floor speeches, fulfilling committee duties and drafting other pieces of legislation such as bills and resolutions.
Grayson’s amendments
To look into the facts of Grayson’s statement about how many amendments he has passed since the beginning of 2013, we turned to Congress.gov, the official website of the U.S. Congress which maintains a database of past and current legislation in both the House and Senate.
According to Congress.gov, Grayson has sponsored 59 amendments in the past three years. Of these, we counted 38 that were passed on the House floor. Fifteen failed, while six others, for various reasons, never received a vote.[7] A full list of Grayson’s amendments—along with their contents—can be seen here.
Grayson’s total of 38 amendments—while not quite 50—easily outpaces most other members of Congress; but we did find two representatives who have passed more than him. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, has sponsored 47 amendments that have passed since 2013, while Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, has sponsored 41.[8][9] Grayson is therefore third in terms of “amendments passed” since 2013. The next closest we could find was Colorado Democrat Jared Polis with 13 amendments.[10]
What about Grayson’s congressional opponents for the open Senate seat in Florida? We weren’t quite sure what Grayson meant when he said “roughly ten times as many as my three Congressional opponents.” Did he mean individually? Collectively? So we looked at it from a few different angles.
Patrick Murphy has passed seven amendments; Ron DeSantis, five and David Jolly—a first-term representative—has passed two.[11][12][13]
In total, these three lawmakers have passed 14 amendments, which means that, collectively, Grayson—with 38—has passed two times as many amendments as his congressional opponents.
Compared individually, he has passed a little more than five times as many amendments as Murphy; almost eight times as many as DeSantis; and 14 times as many as Jolly. But if we average these comparisons, Grayson has passed nine times as many amendments as his opponents, which could be the basis of his claim that he has passed “roughly ten times as many as my three Congressional opponents.”
We reached out to Grayson’s campaign for comment for this article but have not yet heard back.
Amendments as measures of legislative efficacy
A final question worth considering is whether or not the number of amendments a lawmaker has passed is useful for assessing their legislative efficacy. After all, this was the larger point that Grayson was making when he brought up amendments in the first place. The experts that we spoke to had mixed responses to this question.
Some suggested that the number of amendments passed could be a strong indicator of effectiveness. Jordan Ragusa, an assistant professor of political science at the College of Charleston, told us, “In the modern Congress legislation is often passed under a closed rule, making it impossible to offer amendments. That, coupled with being in the minority, makes getting your amendments voted on in the first place difficult. ... Passing a large number of amendments is absolutely evidence of legislative efficacy.”[14]
Others found the number of amendments a lawmaker has passed to be less informative. “I don't think passing amendments is necessarily a good measure of efficacy,” said Joshua Huder, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute, “Many members offer amendments just to make a political point. They want to force the opposite party to cast difficult votes. In this case, despite the fact the amendment may pass, they have no intention of crafting the best policy or legislation. There are a million reasons why amendments may not be a good measure. I think you'll find it's more common among members who lack influence and are attempting to exert it in more minor ways.”[15]
Professor of political science at West Texas A&M University Dave Rausch made a similar point. “Passing amendments is an interesting measure of a lawmaker’s legislative efficacy, but I would not consider it the most effective way to measure efficacy. Measuring legislative efficacy requires multiple measures,” said Rausch.[16]
We also spoke with Craig Volden, a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia and a co-author of Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Congress (Cambridge, 2014), who stressed quality over quantity. “Some amendments are much more significant than others, so there needs to be a way to at least classify the degree of their impact, rather than merely counting them up,” said Volden.[17] Professor Paul Quirk at the University of British Columbia agreed, “It's like a lot of things. A high school student says he read 50 books. OK. Which books?”[18]
Conclusion
In a recent campaign email, Alan Grayson used the number of amendments that he has had passed as an example of his effectiveness as a legislator. He stated that in the past three years he has passed more than 50 amendments in the House, which, he argued, is more than any other member of Congress and ten times more than his three Congressional opponents for an open U.S. Senate seat in Florida.
We found his first two claims to be overstatements. Congress.gov shows that though he has sponsored 59 amendments since 2013, only 38 have passed and two other members of Congress have had more success than Grayson. We found his third claim about his congressional opponents for Senate to be more accurate, but it depends on how you measure it.
Nonetheless, Grayson is right to say that he has passed a lot of amendments in the past three years. Whether or not the number of amendments a lawmaker has passed is as useful for measuring legislative efficacy as Grayson suggested, however, depends on who you ask. Some of the experts that we spoke to said that amendments are a useful measure of effectiveness, while others argued that they are not.
Launched in October 2015 and active through October 2018, Fact Check by Ballotpedia examined claims made by elected officials, political appointees, and political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We evaluated claims made by politicians of all backgrounds and affiliations, subjecting them to the same objective and neutral examination process. As of 2025, Ballotpedia staff periodically review these articles to revaluate and reaffirm our conclusions. Please email us with questions, comments, or concerns about these articles. To learn more about fact-checking, click here.
Sources and Notes
- ↑ Senatorwithguts.com, "Home," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Politifact, "Alan Grayson says he passed more bills and amendments than any other current member," July 14, 2015
- ↑ Alan Grayson's Emails, "A Phrase you don't see often: I helped you," December 8, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Amendment," accessed December 10, 2015
- ↑ Dewhirst, R. (ed.). Encyclopedia of the United States Congress. New York, NY: Facts on File
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Search query: 113-114, Amendments, Grayson," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Search query: 113-114, Amendments, Jackson Lee," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Search query: 113-114, Amendments, Gosar," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Search query: 113-114, Amendments, Polis," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Search query: 113-114, Amendments, Murphy," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Search query: 113-114, Amendments, DeSantis," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "Search query: 113-114, Amendments, Jolly," accessed December 11, 2015
- ↑ Email exchange with Jordan Ragusa on December 10, 2015
- ↑ Email exchange with Joshua Huder on December 11, 2015
- ↑ Email exchange with David Rausch on December 11, 2015
- ↑ Email exchange with Craig Volden on December 11, 2015
- ↑ Email exchange with Paul Quirk on December 11, 2015
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