Despite being the minority party, Democrats overwhelmingly topped the list of most productive senate lawmakers in Congress, with Delaware Sen. Chris Coons among them.
Coons ranks third in Northwestern University’s recent survey of the most productive senators in the country over the past two years.
Delaware’s junior senator sponsored or co-sponsored 25 bills that eventually became law during that time period.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar came in first place with 27 pieces of legislation, with Chuck Schumer of New York a close second.
The highest-ranking Republican on the list is outgoing New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who tied for fourth place with Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
The survey says it’s hard to measure influence strictly by the number of bills passed, since they could count proposals to rename federal buildings, for example.
In all, just three GOP senators passed at least 20 bills that were signed into law – landing them among the top 11.
