U.S. Sen. Gary PETERS (D-Bloomfield Twp.) was ranked the most effective Senator for the 116th session of Congress according to a biannual ranking done by the Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.
According to the report, Peters has the rare distinction of being the most effective Senator despite being in the minority. In fact, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) couldn't find another example of any member of the minority party having more bills passing the Senate (14) or those bills becoming law (10).
"Making this accomplishment all the more remarkable was that Sen. Peters was engaged in a tough reelection battle during this Congress, which he won by less than two percent of the vote," the CEL reported. "It is surprising that Sen. Peters was able to have so many successes to his name under the polarized and partisan Congress that seeks to limit minority-party members' lawmaking successes."
The secret behind his success was finding at least one Republican cosponsor for all of bills. In fact, at times he found more Republicans to cosign his bills than Democrats.
According to CEL, Peters wasn't a one-trick pony either. His bills covered a wide range of subjects -- from agriculture to defense to transportation to science and technology.
To look at the scoring system, no senator even came close to Peters. The now-second term Senator had a Legislative Effectiveness Score of 5.015. The average for minority members of the Senate was .933, 1.056 for majority party members and 1.432 among committee chairs.
The closest to Peters was U.S. Sen. Marco RUBIO (R-Fla.), who had a score of 3.59. Michigan's other senator, U.S. Sen. Debbie STABENOW (D-Delta Twp.) had a score of .117, the lowest in the Senate Democratic caucus and second lowest in the chamber.
Michigan's best member of the U.S. House was U.S. Rep. Debbie DINGELL (D-Dearborn), who had a score of 2.077 as a member of the majority party. U.S. Rep. Rashida TLAIB (D-Detroit) was next with 1.411.
"Michiganders expect us to get things done for them -- and that's always been my focus," Peters said. "I'm proud to be recognized as the most effective senator and for passing legislation on issues impacting Michiganders: from protecting the Great Lakes and waterfront communities -- to make our communities safer and expanding skills training and apprenticeship opportunities for veterans."