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Why Democrats Should Elect AOC Speaker of the House
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not the least effective member of the House; she is the most potentially effective lawmaker Americans have ever elected.
“She’s the queen of Twitter- but less successful at lawmaking,” crowed the New York Post at the news that a nonpartisan analysis of the U.S. House of Representatives found Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) one of the least effective members in Congress.
The Center for Effective Lawmaking concluded that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has proposed only 21 “substantive” bills, none of which have made it out of committee. No piece of legislation drafted by AOC has reached the House floor for debate- none became a law. Out of 240 Congressional Democrats analyzed, Ocasio-Cortez was ranked number 230 in effectiveness.
“It’s clear that she was trying to get her legislative agenda moving and engage with the lawmaking process,” said one political scientist involved in the study, Alan Wiseman. “But she wasn't as successful as some other members were- even among freshmen- at getting people to pay attention to her legislation.”
“She introduced a lot of bills, but she was not successful at having them receive any sort of action in committee or beyond and if they can’t get through committee they cannot pass the House,” Wiseman concluded.