Orange County’s House delegation had just four of their bills signed into law between 2023 and 2025.
All four renamed post offices.
That means the rate at which bills introduced by the six-member delegation — 201 in total — became law during the 118th Congress was a mere 1.99%.
But experts say that’s not unusual, and it doesn’t necessarily mean local lawmakers were ineffective.
That’s because very few bills make it to public law. Only about 1.5 to 3% of the tens of thousands of bills introduced each Congress actually become law, said Worth Hester, the assistant director of the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University.
“Passing noncontroversial bills to name buildings is typical,” Hester said. “Any number of these pass each Congress on voice vote.”
And among all 435 House members, two of the highest-ranking lawmakers came from Orange County: Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, ranked eighth among Republicans, and then-Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, ranked No. 8 among Democrats, with a score of 1.51.
Those scores come from the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a joint project of the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, which ranks lawmakers on more than a dozen factors, including how many bills they introduced, how often those bills were discussed in committee and how much of their bill language was ultimately enacted, even if it became law under someone else’s name.
In the 118th Congress, which ran from January 2023 to January 2025, the center found House Republicans, who held a majority, had an average score of 1.44. House Democrats averaged 0.55.
The highest score in the House went to Rep. Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican who chaired the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, with a score of 6.793. At the bottom was Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who earned just a 0.009.
In California, Senate Democrats — which includes three from California in the 118th Congress — averaged a 1.11 score. (California had three U.S. senators during this time span due to the appointment of Sen. Laphonza Butler to fill in the seat left vacant by Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s death in 2023.)
The Southern California News Group also crunched the numbers on how many bills lawmakers passed into law, how much money they sought for their districts through earmarks, as well as how far their messages spread on social media as part of a broader look at the performance of senators and House members representing Orange County.
Experts say that in a closely divided Congress, few bills of any kind become law. And even then, the final version often carries the name of someone other than the original author.
“Very often, when an idea is coming up, they take an existing bill, gut it and put the idea in there. So that is usually the committee chairman’s bill,” said Matthew Jarvis, a political science professor at Cal State Fullerton who studies Congress. “It might have 0.1% of that chairman’s idea in it; it’s just a vehicle that they used.”
“Most bills that are proposed die in committee,” Jarvis added.
“So, members do the little things,” he said, such as renaming a local post office.
Sign up for Down Ballot, our Southern California politics email newsletter. Subscribe here.Here’s a closer look at how each member of the Orange County congressional delegation performed:
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana (46th Congressional District)
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, during an intimate forum focusing on potential Medicaid and Medicare cuts in Santa Ana, CA, on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)Bills introduced: 14, 1 of which became law
Resolutions introduced: 12
Earmarks requested: $14,592,031 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Legislative effectiveness score: 0.62
Social media reach: 58,226
The one bill Correa got signed into law during the 118th Congress was H.R. 7192, which renamed an Anaheim post office the Dr. William I. “Bill” Kott Post Office Building. Kott was a decorated U.S. Army veteran who served in Europe during World War II. After the war, he became a dentist in California and later attended medical school at age 60 and practiced as a doctor until he was 89.
Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills (40th Congressional District)
Rep. Young Kim represents California’s 40th Congressional District in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, in California. (File photo by Leonard Ortiz, The Orange County Register/SCNG)Bills introduced: 28, 1 of which became law
Resolutions introduced: 11
Earmarks requested: $24,362,000 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Legislative effectiveness score: 3.92
Social media reach: 125,589
Kim’s successful bill was H.R. 3608, which renamed a post office in Mission Viejo after Major Megan McClung, the first female U.S. Marine Corps officer killed in combat during the Iraq War.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano (49th Congressional District)
Rep. Mike Levin speaks on election night on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Del Mar. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)Bills introduced: 30, 1 of which became law
Resolutions introduced: None
Earmarks requested: $17,738,535 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Legislative effectiveness score: 1.11
Social media reach: 167,241
Levin’s bill renamed a post office in Oceanside after Charlesetta Reece Allen, one of the city’s first Black residents, who founded the Oceanside Girls Club and the North San Diego County Branch of the NAACP.
Former Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine (47th Congressional District)
Former Rep. Katie Porter is running for California governor in 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)Bills introduced: 76, none of which became law
Resolutions introduced: 9
Earmarks requested: No earmarks in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Porter famously railed against earmarks during her time in Congress, saying she believes they undermine the intended process of government spending.
Legislative effectiveness score: 1.52
Social media reach: 2,944,953
Among the bills Porter introduced was H.R. 5658, the Vote by Mail Tracking Act, which would have required all mail-in ballots to include a USPS tracking barcode, meet postal service design standards and display the official election mail logo.
She also sponsored H.R. 6490, which would have increased the late enrollment penalty for Medicare from 10% to 15% of monthly premiums. It would have also allowed more people with non-employer health coverage to qualify for special enrollment periods.
Porter opted to run for California’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2024 instead of reelection.
Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Whittier (38th Congressional District)
Rep. Linda Sánchez represents California’s 38th Congressional District in Orange and Los Angeles counties. (Photo courtesy of Rep. Sánchez’s office)Bills introduced: 15, 0 of which became law
Resolutions introduced: 6
Earmarks requested: $13,689,279 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Legislative effectiveness score: 0.14
Social media reach: 79,618
Among the bills Sánchez introduced was H.R. 3194, the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would have created a pathway to citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants, including those who arrived as minors, held Temporary Protected Status or worked in agriculture. It would have also replaced the term “alien” with “noncitizen” in immigration statutes.
She also sponsored H.R. 6031, which would have required schools to create rules that protect students from bullying and harassment based on things like race, gender, disability or religion, and to track regularly how often bullying happens.
Former Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach (45th Congressional District)
Former Rep. Michelle Steel addresses supporters at her election office in Buena Park, CA on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)Bills introduced: 38, 1 of which became law
Resolutions introduced: 9
Earmarks requested: $27,064,210 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Legislative effectiveness score: 2.53
Social media reach: 45,572
Steel’s lone bill signed into law during the 118th Congress was H.R. 8057, which renamed the post office at 9317 Bolsa Avenue in Westminster the “Little Saigon Vietnam War Veterans Memorial Post Office.” The newly designated post office was formally unveiled in April, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The site sits in the heart of California’s 45th Congressional District, home to one of the largest Vietnamese diasporas in the world.
Steel lost reelection in 2024 to Democratic Rep. Derek Tran.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California
The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on July 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)Bills introduced: 31, 1 of which became law
Resolutions introduced: 6
Earmarks requested: $263,867,346 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Legislative effectiveness score: 0.47
Social media reach: 1,873,639
Feinstein got one bill signed into law in her final year: S. 2443, which appropriated funds for energy and water development and related federal agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30.
Feinstein died in office on Sept. 29, 2023, at the age of 90.
Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-California
Former U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, on Oct. 4, 2023. (File photo by Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA, Reuters)Bills introduced: 19, 1 of which became law
Resolutions introduced: 3
Earmarks requested: No earmarks in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Legislative effectiveness score: 0.16
Social media reach: 64,820
Butler’s lone bill signed into law was S. 4243, which posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Shirley Chisholm. In 1968, Chisolm became the first Black woman to be elected to Congress. In 1972, she became the first Black politician to attempt to become the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.
Butler, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill Feinstein’s remaining term, served for a little over a year.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California
U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)Bills introduced: 91, 7 of which became law
Resolutions introduced: 14
Earmarks requested: $312,172,708 in the 2024 omnibus spending bill
Legislative effectiveness score: 2.87
Social media reach: 290,268
Padilla’s seven bills signed into law included S. 3857, the Jamul Indian Village Land Transfer Act, which put land into trust for San Diego County’s Jamul Indian Village of California, a federally recognized tribe.
He also got S. 4077 signed into law, which named a San Francisco post office after the late Feinstein, who served as the city’s mayor from 1978 through 1988 before being elected to the Senate.
Staff writer Linh Tat contributed to this story.
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