At the second presidential debate, Donald Trump said that Hillary Clinton was an ineffective senator from 2001-08 while she served New York.
Clinton responded, saying, “Four-hundred pieces of legislation have my name on it as a sponsor or cosponsor when I was a senator for eight years. I worked very hard.”
But let’s break down that number.
Only three bills Clinton sponsored became law, and they were largely inconsequential.
Of the bills Clinton cosponsored, 74 became law, and some of those were fairly significant.
Combined, Clinton did sponsor 415 pieces of legislation, though only 38 of those managed to pass through one chamber of Congress, let alone get the president’s signature.
Combined, Clinton cosponsored 1,924 pieces of legislation, 453 of which passed either chamber of Congress.
So technically, Clinton’s quote is true. But it might be a bit misleading to describe the work she did as a senator using that number.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
