How Members of Congress Are Graded

The Genocide Intervention Network’s Darfur scorecard provides a quick summary of important anti-genocide measures and whether or not your elected officials, in both the Senate and House supported them.

In addition to assigning each member of Congress a grade based on their support for important anti-genocide measures, the Genocide Intervention Network has compiled a profile for each member. This profile provides an opportunity for members of Congress to present information on non-legislative activities (for example, the publication of opinion articles on the subject or public protests outside the embassy of Sudan) they have undertaken to end the genocide in Darfur.

In order to compile these profiles, GI-Net contacted all congressional offices. The information noted in each member’s profile is drawn directly from information that the offices themselves provided. Certain members may have participated in anti-genocide activities that are not noted on this site; if their offices contact GI-Net we will update the profiles.

Scoring

Members of Congress are graded for their actions to co-sponsor and vote in favor of important Darfur legislation. All legislation that has been graded can be found on the Darfur Legislation page.

Although co-sponsorships have not been considered for every legislative item where votes have been graded, every time co-sponsorship is considered so is the voting record. Co-sponsorships are not always graded for a variety of reasons, including a lack of adequate time for members to sign on or the decision of a bill’s sponsor not to request co-sponsors.

All votes and co-sponsorships that are graded count for one point. Grades are determined by averaging the number of points received against the total number of points possible. For example, if a member of Congress co-sponsored 3 of 4 possible pieces of legislation and voted in favor of 6 of 6 pieces of legislation, she would have received 9 out of 10 points. This would give the Congressman a 90% average and an “A” on the grading scale.

Grading Scale
A+ = Above 100%
A = 81%-100%
B = 71%-80%
C = 51%-70%
D = 41%-50%
F = Below 41%

Grades are compiled cumulatively; however, we maintain a record of performance during previous years on individual scorecards to demonstrate performance over time. Members that have been elected to office more recently have not been graded on previous measures. However, the grading scale is applicable to all members regardless of how long they have been in office or whether they are members of the House or Senate. Members are not graded until there are at least four items on which to base their performance.

Trips to Darfur

Several members of Congress made trips to Darfur. These members usually returned with a commitment to the issue. All representatives and senators who have traveled to Darfur received a “+” in addition to their letter grade.

Extra Credit

A few members of Congress have taken extraordinary action and received extra credit as a result.