U.S. Senator, Nebraska · Republican · in office since Nov. 5, 2024
Pete Ricketts
U.S. Senator · Nebraska · Republican · in the Senate since Jan. 2023
Overall grade · among senators
No. 49 of 91
−0.29σ · 35% of the grade measured
How this grade is built
35%Bills they move (LES)−0.29
30%Nebraska: how it moved on their watch0.00
25%Alignment (promises vs. votes)reserved
10%Attendancereserved
Nebraska outcomes over their Senate service
Category
Latest
Score vs. peers
Education scale score
279.9 ’24
Too early
Air quality AQI
35 ’24
Insufficient data
Water quality % of community systems
4.7 ’25
+0.10σ*
Unemployment %
3 ’25
−0.30σ*
Health coverage % of adults 18-64
11.2 ’24
Insufficient data
Tax burden % of personal income
5.6 ’24
−1.63σ*
Energy cost cents/kWh
11.5 ’24
Insufficient data
Cost of living index, US=100
90.1 ’24
Insufficient data
Crime deaths per 100,000
3.1 ’24
Insufficient data
Teen births per 1,000 females 15-19
14 ’24
Insufficient data
Wellbeing mean days of past 30
4.3 ’24
Insufficient data
Obesity % of adults
37.6 ’24
Too early
Early literacy % of 4th graders
42.2 ’24
Too early
Gun deaths deaths per 100,000 (age-adjusted)
10.9 ’24
Insufficient data
Food-aid access index (higher = easier access)
0.6 ’23
Too early
Jobless-benefit access % of unemployed receiving UI
17.4 ’24
Insufficient data
Their own record
Value
Legislative effectiveness LES · chamber avg = 1.0
0.31
Missed votes
2.0%
Ideology 0 = left · 1 = right (GovTrack)
0.88
Promises kept
In human review
A senator’s constituency is the whole state, so they are scored on the same verified state outcomes as the governor — ranked against other senators — alongside their own legislative record. Influence is shared with 99 colleagues and the governor; the score shows relative movement, not sole credit. Methodology v2.2
What Ricketts voted to fund
These pies aggregate the largest verified spending items — appropriations and mandatory outlays — in the bills Ricketts cast a recorded vote on, sliced by category, every dollar quoted from the bill text. Authorizations, guarantee ceilings and pay-fors are excluded, exactly as on the bill pages. This shows what the bills contained, by Ricketts’s own votes — not a claim that Ricketts wrote the spending or that it did or didn’t work. Click any slice to read the cited line-items.
Pentagon/Shanksville Fund (WTC Health Program — Pentagon & Shanksville survivors) — World Trade Center Health Program — Pentagon/Shanksville$232,000,000
Appropriation to the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund for veterans' health care (PACT Act), available Oct 1 2024 — Dept. of Veterans Affairs - Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund$24,455,000,000
Appropriation to the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund for veterans' health care (PACT Act), available Oct 1 2023 — Dept. of Veterans Affairs - Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund$20,268,000,000
Appropriation to the Dept. of Commerce Nonrecurring Expenses Fund, FY2023 ($11B each for FY2024/FY2025 'Government efficiencies'; PAYGO-exempt) — Dept. of Commerce - Nonrecurring Expenses Fund$22,000,000,000
Total U.S. federal outlays for each fiscal year of Ricketts’s current term. This is the whole federal budget — mostly Social Security, Medicare, defense, interest on the debt, and prior commitments — not money Ricketts personally directed. A president proposes and Congress appropriates; no single official controls it.
FY24
$6.74T−$1.82T deficit
FY25
$7.01T−$1.77T deficit
Source: OMB Historical Tables, Table 1.1 (Summary of Receipts, Outlays, and Surpluses or Deficits: 1789-present) · figures. Nominal dollars, by fiscal year (Oct–Sep).
How Ricketts is graded
A senator’s constituency is the whole state, so Ricketts is graded on the same verified state outcomes as the governor — measured as the change on their watch versus the other 49 states, capped because influence is shared with 99 colleagues, the governor and a world economy — blended with what they personally control: how effectively they move legislation and how they vote. Every part decomposes on the card above, and the “measured” figure says how much of the grade is real versus still reserved.
Legislative Effectiveness Scores come from the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which benchmarks each chamber’s average to 1.0. Voting statistics come from GovTrack. The Honesty ledger — promises matched against this member’s votes — publishes only with an evidence trail and two agreeing human reviews.