Quorum Quarterly: Measuring Legislative Activity and Social Media Trends in Q1 of 2018
Methodology: The data and analysis featured in this report was made possible through Quorum s comprehensive database of legislative information and powerful analytics. The first section, Legislative Activity, analyzes congressional data from 1998 to 2018 to identify how the activity in the first 15 months of the 115th Congress compares to that of the past ten Congresses. The second section, Social Media Trends, analyzes the official Twitter accounts of members of Congress to identify trending hashtags used, key influencers mentioned by legislators, and most active members on the major social platforms in Q1 of 2018.
Legislative Activity Comparing the first 15 months of legislative activity in the 115th Congress to the past ten Congresses
Insight #1: Bills are passing out of House committees at a higher rate than any of the past ten Congresses.
Percent of Bills Passed out of Committee 20% House Senate 16% 12.6% 12% 8% 10.9% 4% 0% 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Data from the start of a Congress to the end of Q1 of the second legislative session. @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #2: House Democrats are passing a higher percentage of bills out of the House than they have since losing the majority following the 2010 midterms.
Percent of House Bills Passed out of the House 16% Democrat Republican 15% 13% 12% 12% 11% 11% 12% 11% 12% 10% 9% 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 4% 3% 4% 3% 4% 2% 2% 2% 0% 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Data from the start of a Congress to the end of Q1 of the second legislative session. @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #3: Senate Republicans are passing bills out of the chamber at their highest rate since 2006.
Percent of Senate Bills Passed out of the Senate 14% 13% Democrat 13% Republican 12% 10% 10% 11% 8% 8% 6% 4% 3% 4% 5% 6% 5% 5% 4% 4% 3% 4% 3% 4% 3% 3% 6% 4% 2% 1% 0% 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Data from the start of a Congress to the end of Q1 of the second legislative session. @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #4: The percentage of bills being passed out of both chambers of Congress has been on a six-year rise.
Percent of Bills Passed out of Chamber 12% 10% House Senate 10% 8% 6% 5.5% 4% 2% 0% 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Data from the start of a Congress to the end of Q1 of the second legislative session. @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #5: While legislation in the Senate is slightly more likely to have bipartisan cosponsors, both chambers introduce bipartisan legislation approximately 25 percent of the time.
Percent of Legislation with Bipartisan Cosponsors 40% House Senate 32% 25.3% 24% 16% 23.1% 8% 0% 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Data from the start of a Congress to the end of Q1 of the second legislative session. @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #6: President Trump is signing legislation originating in the Senate more frequently than President Obama did in 2016, but he is signing legislation introduced in the House less frequently than his predecessor.
Percent of Bills Introduced Signed by the President 4% House Senate 3% 2% 2% 1% 1.6% 0% 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Data from the start of a Congress to the end of Q1 of the second legislative session. @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #7: President Trump has signed 160 bills into law since taking office the highest at this point in a congressional term since 2008.
Number of Bills Signed by the President 250 House Senate 200 150 100 50 169 57 112 182 53 129 156 36 120 209 66 143 211 62 149 198 53 145 151 43 108 101 26 75 92 25 67 145 50 95 160 44 116 0 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Data from the start of a Congress to the end of Q1 of the second legislative session. @QuorumAnalytics
Social Media Trends Analyzing the top hashtags used by members of Congress on Twitter, the most frequently mentioned and retweeted accounts by legislators, and the most active legislators on the top social media platforms.
Insight #8: Republicans most popular message on Twitter during Q1 was tax reform; for Democrats, DACA/Dreamers was the most popular.
Top Hashtags Used by Congress in Q1 of 2018 Number of mentions on Twitter since 1/1/18 by Republicans and Democrats Republicans Democrats #taxreform 2,015 #sotu 1,854 #sotu 1,601 #trumpshutdown 1,334 #taxcutsandjobsact 1,361 #dreamers 1,322 #schumershutdown 1,219 #goptaxscam 1,008 #utpol 467 #neveragain 961 #puertorico 265 #daca 904 #releasethememo 265 #netneutrality 843 #chip 258 #protectdreamers 766 #daca 251 #dreamactnow 640 #az05 225 #blackhistorymonth 624 @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #9: #goptaxscam and #protectdreamers were the only hashtags Democrats used that made the top ten in January, February, and March.
Top Hashtags Used by Democrats in Q1 of 2018 Ranked by number of mentions on Twitter per month by Democrats January February March 1) #sotu #blackhistorymonth #womenshistorymonth 2) #trumpshutdown #netneutrality #neveragain 3) #dreamers #dreamers #marchforourlives 4) #daca #trumpbudget #nationalwalkoutday 5) #goptaxscam #neveragain #endgunviolence 6) #dreamactnow #goptaxscam #enoughisenough 7) #protectdreamers #maxinewaters #goptaxscam 8) #chip #savetheinternet #internationalwomensday 9) #netneutrality #endgunviolence #daca 10) #mlkday #protectdreamers #protectdreamers @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #10: #taxreform and #taxcutsandjobsact were the only hashtags Republicans used that made the top ten in January, February, and March.
Top Hashtags Used by Republicans in Q1 of 2018 Ranked by number of mentions on Twitter per month by Republicans January February March 1) #sotu #taxreform #taxreform 2) #schumershutdown #taxcutsandjobsact #taxcutsandjobsact 3) #taxreform #utpol #stopschoolviolenceact 4) #taxcutsandjobsact #puertorico #womenshistorymonth 5) #chip #az05 #nationalagday 6) #releasethememo #blackhistorymonth #sesta 7) #utpol #daca #utpol 8) #marchforlife #checkyourcheck #relief4mainstreet 9) #prolife #va10 #righttotry 10) #daca #teamusa #omnibus @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #11: Four of the top five news accounts mentioned by Republicans on Twitter were Fox News programs.
Most Mentioned News Outlets or Reporters by Congress in Q1 of 2018 Number of mentions on Twitter since 1/1/18 by Republicans and Democrats Republicans Democrats @foxnews 717 @cnn 354 @foxbusiness 447 @thedailybeast 324 @foxandfriends 152 @msnbc 316 @wsj 99 @thehill 204 @varneyco 88 @maddow 199 @dcexaminer 86 @angela_rye 137 @thehill 83 @nytimes 134 @mariabartiromo 76 @aprildryan 126 @hughhewitt 70 @vice 114 @cspan 69 @washingtonpost 100 @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #12: Of the top ten most retweeted news organizations by Democrats and Republicans, only two of the 19 organizations mentioned work in print media.
Most Retweeted News Outlets or Reporters by Congress in Q1 of 2018 Number of retweets on Twitter since 1/1/18 by Republicans and Democrats Republicans Democrats @FoxNews 359 @thehill 162 @FoxBusiness 160 @nowthisnews 86 @foxandfriends 56 @kylegriffin1 71 @CNBC 36 @CNN 68 @dcexaminer 33 @MSNBC 62 @AmericaNewsroom 29 @AC360 54 @FaceTheNation 28 @NBCNews 47 @LouDobbs 25 @CNNPolitics 44 @AP 24 @ABC 39 @thehill 23 @CBSNews 38 @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #13: Eight of the ten most active senators on Facebook are Democrats. Freshman Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA-17) leads the House and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leads the Senate.
Most Active Members of Congress on Facebook Number of posts on Facebook since 1/1/18 House Senate Khanna (D-CA-17) 827 Sanders (I-VT) 758 O'Rourke (D-TX-16) 645 Heitkamp (D-ND) 261 King (R-IA-4) 617 Brown (D-OH) 259 Blackburn (R-TN-7) 584 Harris (D-CA) 254 Polis (D-CO-2) 495 Stabenow (D-MI) 236 Renacci (R-OH-16) 461 Donnelly (D-IN) 221 Beyer (D-VA-8) 449 Kaine (D-VA) 200 Crowley (D-NY-14) 418 Murphy (D-CT) 199 Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL-27) 407 Rubio (R-FL) 197 Delaney (D-MD-6) 392 Murkowski (R-AK) 195 @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #14: Eight of the top ten most active representatives on Twitter are Democrats. The most active representative tweeted twice as often as the most active senator.
Most Active Members of Congress on Twitter Number of tweets and retweets from official accounts since 1/1/18 House Senate Clay (D-MO-1) 2,199 Whitehouse (D-RI) 1,004 Beyer (D-VA-8) 1,759 Cornyn (R-TX) 999 Waters (D-CA-43) 1,496 Rubio (R-FL) 932 Jayapal (D-WA-7) 1,375 Smith (D-MN) 880 Byrne (R-AL-1) 1,059 Murray (D-WA) 824 Castro (D-TX-20) 959 Markey (D-MA) 809 Khanna (D-CA-17) 934 Hatch (R-UT) 806 Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL-27) 898 Portman (R-OH) 778 Espaillat (D-NY-13) 855 Booker (D-NJ) 762 Ellison (D-MN-5) 828 Schumer (D-NY) 745 @QuorumAnalytics
Insight #15: Amongst the top ten most active Instagram users in Congress, there is an even split between Democrats and Republicans in both chambers.
Most Active Members of Congress on Instagram Number of posts on Instagram from official accounts since 1/1/18 House Senate Bustos (D-IL-17) 145 Grassley (R-IA) 145 Noem (R-SD-1) 132 Harris (D-CA) 121 Rogers (R-AL-3) 131 Sanders (I-VT) 82 O'Rourke (D-TX-16) 125 Hoeven (R-ND) 69 Stefanik (R-NY-21) 100 Menendez (D-NJ) 65 Crowley (D-NY-14) 95 Booker (D-NJ) 52 Hice (R-GA-10) 95 Fischer (R-NE) 50 Olson (R-TX-22) 94 Murkowski (R-AK) 50 Maloney (D-NY-12) 83 Warner (D-VA) 46 Payne (D-NJ-10) 83 Barrasso (R-WY) 45 @QuorumAnalytics
Quorum Quarterly: Measuring Legislative Activity and Social Media Trends in Q1 of 2018