How bipartisan are Senate Chicken Caucus members?

The Senate Chicken Caucus formed in 2013 with the intent of being a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators with a common interest in the chicken industry.

Roy Graber

May 2, 2018

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, ranked as the fifth most bipartisan U.S. senator, and the most bipartisan member of the Senate Chicken Caucus, according to the The Lugar Center - McCourt School Bipartisan Index. | Photo courtesy of Sen. Lindsey Graham

The Senate Chicken Caucus formed in 2013 with the intent of being a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators with a common interest in the chicken industry.

According to information on the website of Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, the caucus “serves as a formal group of members whose mission is to educate other senators and staff about the history, contributions, challenges and opportunities facing the U.S. chicken industry.” Coons, who co-chairs the Senate Chicken Caucus with Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, further stated that the caucus “provides a forum for industry leaders, officials and other stakeholders to meet with legislators and examine ways in which the federal government can better serve chicken producers.”

Measuring bipartisanship

While there are twice as many Republicans on the 12-member caucus than there are Democrats, Coons, who is in the minority party, touts the committee as bipartisan. But just because it consists of members from both parties, are the members of the Senate Chicken Caucus bipartisan in their actions in Washington?

The answer to that question is actually pretty encouraging for those that encourage bipartisanship.

The Lugar Center, a non-partisan and non-profit group, and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy have recently released an index that ranks the bipartisanship of each U.S. senator, although Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were excluded from the rankings, leaving 98 senators ranked.

The index measures the frequency with which a member co-sponsors a bill introduced by the opposite party and the frequency with which a member’s own bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party. The rankings were based off of activity during the 2017 session.

And of those on the Senate Chicken Caucus, 8 of the 12 ranked in the upper half in terms of being bipartisan.