Is Tim Ryan legislatively lame? Tally of laws passed is a misleading gauge

[Ohiogal]

Please read - this applies to all candidates, not just Tim Ryan.

And, BTW -- Ryan has also been quite involved in the Youngstown Business Incubator and bringing the TJ Maxx warehouse to our area, two stories that were left out of this article.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - When Niles-area Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan announced his presidential bid last week, Republicans in Ohio and nationally trashed him as a legislative lightweight.

“In over 16 years in Congress, he’s passed no legislation other than renaming two federal buildings," a Republican National Committee press release said of Ryan. “He has two legislative accomplishments in over 16 years in Congress – renaming two federal buildings,” echoed an Ohio Republican Party statement.

Republicans are using the officially designated authorship of bills passed by Congress to level similar criticism at most of the Democrats in Congress who are running for president. But that can be a misleading measure of a lawmaker’s effectiveness.

On California Rep. Eric Swalwell, the GOP says: “Has passed a total of two pages of legislation, one of which renamed a post office." On former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke: “Only passed one bill in Congress: naming a courthouse.” On Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders: “Has only passed three bills in nearly three decades: two of them renamed post offices.” On Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “She’s ineffective, Warren has never had a bill signed into law.”

(snip)

University of Akron political scientist David Cohen says the number of bills that members of Congress are officially credited with authoring is not a useful way to determine whether a legislator is successful because so much of what Congress does is driven by its leaders. No matter how hard they work on legislation, few members of Congress are listed as the main sponsor of bills unless they chair the committee that produced them.

Cohen noted that much of Ryan’s service is on the Appropriations Committee, which determines federal spending. Ryan uses his post as an Appropriations subcommittee chairman to author bill language that channels money to programs that benefit his district and the state of Ohio. Over the years, these included grant programs that aided pregnant women at risk for domestic violence, Cohen said, and another grant program that helped local fire departments rehire laid off firefighters.

Cohen said Ryan’s 16 years in Congress is more time than many other candidates served, and said Ryan’s budgeting experience would help him as a presidential candidate, because mastering the budget process is “key to policy making in Congress.”

“I don’t think his legislative record or legislative experience should be discounted at this point," Cohen said of Ryan. “Republicans are going to attack every announced Democratic candidate in the field - it would be campaign malpractice if they didn’t do that."

More: https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/04/is-tim-ryan-legislatively-lame-tally-of-laws-passed-is-a-misleading-gauge.html

[KT2000]

1. I liked what he had to say

on Hardball yesterday. He gets that China has long range plans and the US is going to sink if we don't get moving with some plans. He also gets how things are done in Washington that is leaving so many behind.

[Ohiogal]

2. Yes

He’s very Sherrod-esque on those issues.

[Hortensis]

3. Imo, Ryan is a scummy, unprincipled conservative.

It's not exactly unfounded. I've read that most of his colleagues do not respect him, and that seems totally justified. He hangs mostly with a tiny group of blue dogs who share his troublemaking, subversive activities against the goals of liberal Democrats.

He's ambitious but prone to stupid, seemingly malice-drive maneuvers that sabotage him more than anyone else. He earned his place on Nancy Pelosi's bad side long before he maneuvered himself into the national spotlight by trying to keep her from being elected speaker again, with no good candidate (besides himself) in mind, but memorably claiming that any of the new or other women in our caucus could take her place if we wanted a woman speaker.