“Legislation was never her focus. It was media and narrative,” said a Democrat who worked with Ocasio-Cortez.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is a master at generating viral tweets and much-watched Instagram live streams, but when it comes to introducing bills that become law, the progressive lawmaker is less successful.
A new report from the nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking found that Ocasio-Cortez is one of Congress’ least effective lawmakers.
The 21 bills that Ocasio-Cortez introduced on the floor and hyped on her social media accounts received no action in committees, no floor votes, and not one of them became law.
Some of the bills introduced by Ocasio-Cortez included a mandate to provide full public benefits to illegal immigrants, a fracking ban, and a federal revamp of public housing.
Out of 240 congressional Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez came in 230th place. When ranked among the 19 Democratic lawmakers from New York, she came in last.
“She introduced a lot of bills but she was not successful at having them receive any sort of action in committee or beyond committee, and if they can’t get through committee, they cannot pass the House,” Alan Wiseman, a Vanderbilt political scientist and co-director of the center, told The New York Post.
“Tweeting is easy, governing is hard. You need to have friends. You need to understand the committee process, you need to be willing to make sacrifices,” a senior democrat told the Post. Her first day in Congress … she decided to protest outside of Nancy Pelosi’s office.”
Another Democrat who worked with Ocasio-Cortez in the New York delegation said that “legislation was never her focus. It was media and narrative.”
Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez have publicly feuded for years. In November 2019, when Pelosi prepared a bipartisan border funding bill, Ocasio-Cortez and her so-called progressive “Squad” were the only Democrats to vote against the bill.
The bill easily passed without the Squad’s support.
“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi told the New York Times. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”
In response, Ocasio-Cortez complained to the Washington Post about Pelosi’s “explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”
The remarks drew outrage from the rest of the Democratic party. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a longtime delegate to the House of Representatives who is black, publicly admonished Ocasio-Cortez for her insinuation that Pelosi is racist.
“One thing we will not tolerate is using the race question, otherwise known as the race card, on any member [of the Democratic party],” she said.