New York Rep. Mondaire Jones (D) is the most active freshman in Congress after serving just a bit more than four months.
The openly gay member of the U.S. House of Representatives has sponsored or co-sponsored 278 legislative measures, according to Axios. The freshman lawmaker’s activity has blown past other first-year lawmakers, including other lawmakers who have spent weeks to months in national headlines.
While Jones is working his way toward sponsoring more than 300 bills, Jon Ossoff
, who helped Democrats take Georgia and Joe Biden become president, has sponsored 36 bills, the fewest of all freshmen lawmakers.“I came to Congress intent on meeting the numerous crises we face with the urgency that this period in our history demands, and in my first months in office that’s exactly what I’ve done,” Jones said in a release, according to Yahoo News. “My team
and I have wasted no time getting to work for the people of Westchester and Rockland [counties], and I’m thrilled to see that hard work reflected in the data. From crushing the COVID-19 crisis and jumpstarting our economic recovery to fighting to save our democracy and obtain racial justice in policing, we’ve made great progress, but our work has only just begun.”Bills that Jones has sponsored or co-sponsored include the SALT Deductibility Act
, the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, the Judiciary Act of 2021, the Juror Non-Discrimination Act and the Strength in Diversity Act.Jones also took Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton to task when he argued against the statehood of Washington D.C. saying, “Wyoming is a well-rounded working class state.”
“I had no idea there were so many syllables in the word White,” Jones responded. “One of my House Republican colleagues
said D.C. shouldn’t be a state because it doesn’t have a landfill. My goodness with all the racist trash my colleagues have brought to this debate, I can see why they’re worried about having a place to put it.”Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams, who replaced the late John Lewis, and New York lawmaker Ritchie Torres also finished in the top five of bills sponsored with 222 and 183 sponsors and cosponsors, respectively.