Aug. 8, 2026Methodology v2.5 · State metrics: 12 source systems, data through 2023–2025 by metric
Political Grades
government — just the stats

CongressUtah

Mike Lee

U.S. Senator, Utah · Republican · in office since Jan. 5, 2011

Mike Lee
U.S. Senator · Utah · Republican · in the Senate since Jan. 2011
Overall grade · among senators
+0.51σ
No. 9 of 91 · 65% of the grade measured
How this grade is built
30%Bills they move (LES, 118th Congress)+0.19
25%Utah: trend + condition (21% condition, 15.6y served)+0.25
10%Fiscal votes (CBO-scored laws)+0.08
25%Alignment (promises vs. votes)reserved
10%Attendance (missed votes)reserved
Utah outcomes during their Senate service · scored 2011–2025
CategoryLatestScore vs. peers
Education scale score281.824+1.57σ
Air quality AQI4524−0.67σ
Water quality % of systems with a violation8.025+0.77σ
Unemployment %3.625−0.20σ
Health coverage % of adults 18-64 uninsured10.124−0.05σ
Tax burden % of personal income5.724+0.14σ
Energy cost cents/kWh12.224+0.87σ
Cost of living index, US=10098.924+0.18σ
Homicide age-adjusted deaths per 100,0002.324+0.84σ
Teen births per 1,000 females 15-198.224+1.15σ
Wellbeing mean poor-mental-health days of 30524−0.57σ
Obesity % of adults31.024−0.47σ
Early literacy % of 4th-graders below basic35.524+0.82σ
Gun deaths age-adjusted deaths per 100,00013.324+0.67σ
Food-aid access index (higher = easier access)0.423−1.41σ
Jobless-benefit access % of unemployed receiving UI21.924−0.25σ

Scoring windows run 20112025 and differ by metric — none starts before 2011, the year Lee entered the Senate. “Latest” is a different year by metric (20232025); every row states its own. Each row’s window, source and last-checked date are behind its ? button.

Their own recordValue
Legislative effectiveness LES · chamber avg = 1.0 · 118th Congress
1.16
Missed votes lifetime, all service (GovTrack)3.1%
Ideology 0 = left · 1 = right · 119th Congress sponsorship analysis (GovTrack)0.87
Promises keptIn 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 v2.5

The Rundown

No. 9 of 91 senators — on the 65% of the grade we can actually measure.

Bills that move. A Legislative Effectiveness Score of 1.16 — the scale is set so each chamber averages 1.00, and it counts only the bills a member sponsors themselves and how far each one gets. The grade scores that against members of the same chamber on the same side of the majority, so it reflects lawmaking rather than who holds the gavel: the same score sits differently in the majority than out of it. Measured over the 118th Congress, now complete.

Fiscal votes. The deficit footprint of the laws Lee voted for, per CBO's estimates, ranked against other senators with enough scored votes — a lower footprint ranks higher. Six scored laws today, dollar-dominated by the largest, so this measures the pandemic-era fiscal record more than a career; coverage broadens as laws are added. Every vote and its CBO figure is itemized in the debt section below.

Utah outcomes. Utah's own record contributes here, at 100% of full weight — Lee is 15.6 years into Senate service, and a state is shared with 99 colleagues and a governor. The longer the tenure, the more of the state's record is attributed.

Not counted — 35% of the rubric. promise-keeping (25%): promise/position alignment publishes only after two agreeing human reviews · attendance (10%): needs per-Congress missed votes; our figure is lifetime

So this is a ranking of 3 things, not a verdict on a career. Senators are also scored on their state's outcomes, ranked only against other senators. Everything reserved above publishes the moment it can be measured fairly, and never before.

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The national debt on their watch

context — not this member’s grade

When Lee first took office in 2011, the federal debt stood at $13.56 trillion (end of fiscal 2010; Treasury). As of 2026-08-06 it is $39.89 trillion (Treasury, daily). That rise spans presidents, majorities and economies — it belongs to no single member, which is why it is context here and part of no grade. What is Lee’s own: their recorded votes when the major fiscal bills came through, beside what the Congressional Budget Office estimated each law would do to deficits.

$10T$20T$30T$40T201020182026took office · $13.56 trillion$39.89 trillion
Total public debt outstanding, fiscal 2010–present, in nominal dollars — no adjustment for inflation or the size of the economy, so early decades understate their era’s burden. Y-axis starts at zero. Source: Treasury.
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Debt figures as of the data refresh on 2026-08-08. These same votes feed the grade’s fiscal-conduct block (10%, methodology v2.5) — the debt itself feeds nothing: it belongs to no single member, and only their own votes are scored. The change is preregistered and dated in the changelog.

The promise ledger

The evidence base for the promise-keeping block of the grade — the 25% shown as reserved on the card above. What Lee said they would do, in their own words, beside what they did. Said-columns hold verbatim quotes only, from dated, linkable sources, and publish only after two agreeing human reviews — the methodology’s bar, and the reason a column may be empty: the bar does not move to fill it.

In their speeches

No promise from a speech has been published for Lee. One appears here only as a verbatim quote from a dated transcript, and only after two agreeing human reviews — the column stays empty until something clears that bar. The raw material is public meanwhile: search C-SPAN’s video archive for Lee

In their advertising

None published yet — same bar as speeches. The public archives are searchable now: the Meta Ad Library and Google’s ad-transparency archive, searched by name — a search, so same-named others may appear in the results.

Bills they introduced

28 bills and resolutions sponsored in the 119th Congress — the newest:

  • S. 5347A bill to amend title 28, United States Code, to modify the composition of certain judicia…
    Latest action (2026-08-06): Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  • S. 5338A bill to amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to prohibit the Secretary of Energy…
    Latest action (2026-08-06): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  • S. 5191Citizenship for International Adoptees Act of 2026
    Latest action (2026-07-30): Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  • S. 5202Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Research Act
    Latest action (2026-07-30): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  • S. 5128GRACE Act
    Latest action (2026-07-23): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

From the Congress.gov API, as of 2026-08-08. Latest actions are quoted from the record — most introduced bills die in committee, and that is part of the record too.

How they voted
  • H.R. 1319voted Nay
    what it contains, dollar by dollar →
  • H.R. 3684voted Nay
    what it contains, dollar by dollar →
  • H.R. 4346voted Nay
    what it contains, dollar by dollar →
  • H.R. 5376voted Nay
    what it contains, dollar by dollar →
  • S. 3373voted Nay
    what it contains, dollar by dollar →
  • H.R. 2670voted Nay
    what it contains, dollar by dollar →
  • H.R. 3746voted Nay
    what it contains, dollar by dollar →
  • H.R. 4366voted Nay
    what it contains, dollar by dollar →
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How Lee voted

8 tracked bills

These are the major bills this site tracks line by line — not a full voting record. A member casts hundreds of votes a Congress; these 8 are the ones whose spending has been extracted and cited from the enacted text.

BillVotedTracked spendingRoll call
H.R. 4366
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024
Against$655.0BMarch 8, 2024
H.R. 2670
NDAA FY2024
Against$676MDec. 13, 2023
H.R. 3746
Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
Against$66.7BJune 1, 2023
H.R. 5376
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
Against$183.9BAug. 7, 2022
S. 3373
Honoring our PACT Act of 2022
Against$6.9BAug. 2, 2022
H.R. 4346
CHIPS and Science Act of 2022
Against$54.2BJuly 27, 2022
H.R. 3684
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)
Against$279.9BAug. 10, 2021
H.R. 1319
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA)
Against$912.2BMarch 6, 2021

Every date links to the official roll call for Lee’s own chamber. “Did not vote” is not “absent” — the record shows no vote was cast and gives no reason, which is often illness, travel or a paired vote. Nothing on this table is counted toward or against Lee’s grade.

What Lee voted to fund

These pies aggregate the largest verified spending items — appropriations and mandatory outlays — in the bills Lee 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 Lee’s own votes — not a claim that Lee wrote the spending or that it did or didn’t work. Every dollar in these pies is quoted from the bill text and cited, item by item, on the bill’s own page.

Voted to fund
0 bills · voted Yea

No in-scope bills with extractable appropriations voted for.

Voted against
8 bills · voted Nay
$2.16Ttracked
  • community & regional development$412.7B · 19%
  • veterans$372.6B · 17%
  • income security$301.3B · 14%
  • transportation$202.9B · 9%
  • education$162.6B · 8%
  • energy$128.0B · 6%
  • commerce & housing credit$127.8B · 6%
  • other$127.3B · 6%
  • health$104.9B · 5%
  • broadband$83.1B · 4%
  • water$40.2B · 2%
  • science$40.0B · 2%
  • defense$31.2B · 1%
  • agriculture$22.3B · 1%
  • environment$2.6B · 0.1%

Quoted in full on the bill pages: H.R. 1319 · H.R. 3684 · H.R. 4346 · H.R. 5376 · S. 3373 · H.R. 2670 · H.R. 3746 · H.R. 4366.

Largest items

The remaining 168 items are quoted in full on the bill pages.

Federal spending during Lee’s current term

Total U.S. federal outlays for each fiscal year of Lee’s current term. This is the whole federal budget — mostly Social Security, Medicare, defense, interest on the debt, and prior commitments — not money Lee personally directed. A president proposes and Congress appropriates; no single official controls it.

Nominal dollars — not adjusted for inflation. Bar lengths compare dollars of different years, so a longer bar can be higher prices rather than more spending. Do not read these bars as a real trend.

FY23
$6.13T74% in term−$1.69T deficit
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 · compiled Aug. 8, 2026. Fiscal years run Oct–Sep, so they do not line up with the start of a term — marked above with the share that fell inside this term.

Closed fiscal years published for this term so far: FY2023–FY2025. FY2026 closes Sept. 30, 2026 and OMB has not published it. A short chart here means the term is young and the series stops at the last closed year — not that spending stopped.

How Lee is graded

A senator’s constituency is the whole state, so Lee 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 the one thing we can measure of what they personally control: how far the legislation they sponsor actually moves. Voting alignment and attendance are defined in the rubric but reserved, not counted, so no vote of theirs is in this grade today. 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.