Our CPA Trade Grade system has a carefully calibrated scoring method. Here is how it works.

(Note: The Congressional Summary Grades are here. The full data set is here.)

1. Type of Action: Votes are the most important action of course, and so have twice the score of merely co-sponsoring a bill. Often bills are just messaging bills that don’t go anywhere. Also, sometimes members sign letters to leadership or the administration. We are starting to list those letters for information only, but the letters don’t impact the score.
2. Importance of the Action: All trade related bills are not created equal. We add weight to the score for more important bills. For example, most bills are of “regular” importance, so no weight is added. If they are “important”, then we add a point. If there are of “priority importance” then we add two points. Trade agreements are often assigned a “priority importance” score.
3. Extra Points for Close Votes: Many Congressional votes are not close. So there is not a huge risk in voting the right way. Sometimes, however, there are close votes. And voting the right way takes more courage. We assign another point if the vote was close. Currently, only the Central American Free Trade Agreement has a “close vote” extra point.
4. Aging Score: If a Congressman scored badly several years ago, but is doing better now, that old, bad score keeps hanging around. We approve if a Congressman is doing better, but the old votes are almost always relevant. So we diminish the importance of old votes in the grading system, but don’t eliminate their importance. Votes in the current and immediately past Congress (a “Congress” lasts two years) have full value. Votes in the next oldest Congress have 80% value. Votes in the next two prior Congressional sessions have values of 60% and 40%. The minimum value is 40%, so a 30 year House member would still have the oldest votes counting a 40% weight. Thus, the newer votes always impact the score the most but the old votes, while of diminishing importance, don’t go away.

 Here is the table showing our formula for scoring.

This table below shows how the scoring is carried out for each rated action. We can’t get the whole thing on the page, so you have to scroll left or right. It’s pretty cool that you can click each bill title and go to another page showing the summary of what it is.

This table shows the grading system cutoff. An “A” is 80% or above. B is 60% or above, and so on.

Lastly, and more interesting, is how well the Republicans and Democrats do on the system. Partisans may be happy or offended. We choose bills that will help America win the international economic competition. We don’t apologize for how the numbers come out. Our members and supporters need to have the facts about where their Congressional members stand. Deluding ourselves does not help.