FACT CHECK
Substance Abuse
Debunking a bogus claim about Clinton's legislative record.By Jess Henig | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 1, 2008 | Updated: 12:42 p.m. ET Apr 1, 2008
Here's how FactCheck.org tallies the real breakdown of bills and resolutions sponsored by the candidates in the U.S. Senate.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Obama ~~~~~~~~ Clinton
Years in Senate ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 ~~~~~~~~~~~ 7
Bills sponsored* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 129 ~~~~~~~~~~ 358
Bills passed by Senate ~~~~~~~~~~ 7 ~~~~~~~~~~~ 32
Bills signed into law ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~ 19
Sponsored, per year ~~~~~~~~~~~ 43 ~~~~~~~~~~ 51.1
Passed by Senate, per year ~~~~~~ 2.3 ~~~~~~~~~~~ 4.6
Signed into law, per year ~~~~~~~~ 0.7 ~~~~~~~~~~~ 2.7
*Sole original sponsor
We counted only bills for which Obama or Clinton was the sole, original sponsor. The e-mail inflates Obama's numbers by counting his cosponsored bills, but Sarah Binder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on legislative politics, tells FactCheck.org that often "cosponsorship does not require a commitment of time, energy or resources – let alone the political or policy ingenuity that might generate a bill idea in the first place." Tallying sponsored bills, says Binder, is "a better metric of a senator's agenda, efforts and interests."
Clinton has been in the Senate a little more than seven years; Obama, a little more than three. Using the numbers above, we calculate that Clinton has been the sole sponsor of a few more bills and resolutions per year – 51, to Obama's 43. And she has steered twice as many through the Senate and almost four times as many into law per year, on average, as Obama has.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/129976/page/1