Announcing the Release of the 90th Iowa General Assembly, the 2023-2024 Florida State Legislature, and the 2023-2024 Connecticut State Legislature State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) 

The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 90th Iowa General Assembly, the 2023-2024 Florida State legislative session, and the 2023-2024 Connecticut State legislative session. This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. 

These scores capture lawmaking effectiveness by tracking the number of bills legislators sponsor, how far those bills advance through the legislative process, and the substantive significance of the proposals. 

Iowa, Florida, and Connecticut mark the latest additions to our public data release, following earlier reports on Montana, Georgia, and several other states. We will continue to expand our data availability and analyses to all fifty states in the coming months. 

Highlights from the 90th Iowa General Assembly, the 2023-2024 Florida state legislative session, and the 2023-2024 Connecticut State legislative session include the following: 

• Top Performers: We identify the most effective lawmakers from each party in the Iowa, Florida, and Connecticut lower and upper chambers, including legislators who have consistently ranked highly across multiple legislative sessions. 

• Above Expectations: We highlight members who earned our prestigious Above Expectations designation for lawmaking effectiveness, including both seasoned legislators with sustained records and first-term lawmakers who quickly distinguished themselves among their peers. 

• Majority Party Advantage: Consistent with CEL research, majority-party legislators were generally more effective lawmakers, reflecting structural advantages such as agenda-setting power and committee leadership. 

• Iowa-specific Findings: In terms of broader patterns, it is difficult to overstate the degree to which minority-party lawmakers are shut out of the lawmaking process in Iowa.  While the SLES of minority-party lawmakers across the country on the whole averages about 0.6, the scores for minority-party members in Iowa have been around a quarter of that, averaging around 0.15.  And their successes are mostly limited to early lawmaking stages. For example, none of the 150 bills introduced by Democratic Senators in 2023-2024 were considered beyond the committee stage. Indeed, combining the last three legislative terms together – across both the House of Representatives and the Senate – only one of the 977 total laws was sponsored by a Democrat. This ratio is significantly out of proportion to the number of seats the parties hold in the chambers, and well beyond what is seen in most legislatures across the country. 

• Florida-specific Findings: More broadly, the 2023-2024 term featured a greater partisan divide in the Florida Senate than in prior terms. This is reflected in the SLES of Democrats averaging 0.52, the lowest level seen since the beginning of our data in 2001. That translates into just 2 laws arising from the proposals of the average Democrat, compared to an average of 7 laws per Republican. In total, Democratic Senators sponsored 26 bills that became law, compared to 196 from Republican Senators. Democrats did not fare much better in the House of Representatives, where the average Democrat produced only half as many laws as the average Republican. Indeed, across both chambers combined, Democrats sponsored 40 bills that became law compared to 259 from Republicans.   

• Connecticut-specific Findings: In terms of broader patterns, the 2023-2024 term featured more even lawmaking activity and effectiveness across parties in Connecticut than we have seen in a number of years. This is reflected in both the SLES of Republicans and in the number of laws they produced. While the SLES of minority-party lawmakers across the country on the whole averages about 0.6, the scores for minority-party members in Connecticut were above 0.8, reaching their highest levels since the power-sharing term in the Senate in 2017-2018. In terms of laws produced, the average Republican in the House of Representatives in 2023-2024 sponsored 1.4 bills that became law, almost the same as the 1.5 law rate for the average Democrat. And in the Senate, those rates were 4.6 laws per Republican compared to 5.2 laws per Democrat. Such activity and effectiveness across party lines is noteworthy, as many states have seen their minority-party lawmakers largely shut out of the legislative process. 

You can explore the full reports and detailed findings below: 

• Read the Iowa Report here 
• Read the Florida Report here 
• Read to Connecticut Report here 
• View the SLES Scores here