Many animal protection issues never receive a recorded vote in Congress. Some are enacted by voice vote, and some are introduced but don’t advance. To accurately measure legislators’ support, we count not just recorded votes, but other meaningful ways they can help issues advance, such as co-sponsoring key bills and co-signing letters seeking increased enforcement of animal welfare laws. Dozens of animal protection bills are introduced each year; to give a balanced snapshot across a broad range of concerns, we only count co-sponsorship of a few priority bipartisan bills that have a critical mass of support and a reasonable chance of enactment.
Scores are given as percentages of the number of items counted. Legislators receive a ✔ in the Leader column and extra credit if they introduced endorsed legislation, signed a letter we requested to an agency or congressional committee, or worked with us to pursue animal welfare priorities as part of hearings, bill markups or floor debate. Those who took such actions multiple times, led a requested sign-on letter or led on a top priority issue counted in this scorecard receive double extra credit and a ★ in the Leader column. If a legislator already has a score of 100 before counting the extra credit for leadership, their score appears in bold with a plus sign.
Humane World Action Fund acknowledges the limitations of judging legislators based on a few votes, co-sponsorships, joint letters and leadership on animal issues. In some cases, legislators must miss votes for unavoidable reasons, such as a death in the family, serious illness, birth of a child or an emergency in their district. Please also consider such unrecorded matters as performance on committees, positions of House or Senate leadership, constituent service and co-sponsorship of other animal protection bills not counted in the scorecard.
