How many bills did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sponsor in the 117th Congress (2021-2022)?

1. Clear claim: a repeated, specific total that anchors the debate

Three independent extracts in the dataset directly state that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced or sponsored 18 bills during the 117th Congress. One source summarizes her legislative activity and explicitly lists 18 bills sponsored, noting this is below the congressional median and giving a member rank of 281 out of 453 ^[1]. A separate report card reiterates the same number—18 bills and resolutions—and places her in the 34th percentile among representatives for that metric ^[2]. A 2025 summary that revisits her 117th Congress work also cites 18 bills introduced, while adding context about cosponsorships and support levels ^[2]. These concordant references form the strongest factual basis in the supplied material.

2. Conflicting fragments: why some records diverge or look wrong

Other entries in the dataset either do not provide a complete count or present figures that conflict with the 18-bill total. One excerpt claims Ocasio-Cortez sponsored “one bill” in the 117th Congress—House Bill 7422—while acknowledging the source does not offer a comprehensive list and thus cannot confirm a total ^[3]. Another entry cites broader tallies spanning multiple Congresses (58 bills from 2019 to 2025) or presents metadata that appears to show hundreds or thousands of items in filtered views—figures that are inconsistent with the 117th-specific count and likely reflect different time ranges or search filters ^{[4] [5]}. Several notes also flag limitations of archival APIs and incomplete pages, underscoring data availability issues ^{[6] [7]}.

3. How to reconcile the numbers and judge reliability

When comparing the dataset, the principle is to trust sources that explicitly restrict their reporting to the 117th Congress and provide a direct count; by that standard, the multiple items reporting 18 sponsored bills are the most reliable within the provided corpus ^{[1] [2]}. The entries showing larger totals or single-item sponsorships either cover broader time windows, lack comprehensive lists, or explicitly warn they do not capture all activity ^{[3] [4] [5]}. The dataset itself flags the risk of mismatched timeframes and deprecated APIs, which explains why some records cannot be used to counter the 18-bill figure without additional corroboration ^{[6] [7]}. Therefore, within the supplied material, 18 is the best-supported and most reproducible answer.

4. Context: what the 18-bill figure implies about legislative behavior

The supplied materials place the 18 sponsored bills figure into comparative context: it sits below the median number of bills sponsored by House members in that Congress and results in a mid-to-lower ranking among peers—281st of 453 in one account and in the 34th percentile in another ^{[1] [2]}. At the same time, the same sources show she cosponsored substantially more legislation—hundreds of bills—indicating a strategy focused on coalition-building or prioritizing cosponsorship over initiating numerous standalone measures ^{[1] [2]}. This context clarifies that raw counts do not fully convey legislative influence: cosponsorship patterns and the number of cosponsors on a member’s bills are also important metrics reported in the dataset ^{[2] [5]}.

5. Bottom line and open data caveats for readers

Based solely on the supplied analyses, the correct, defensible answer is that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sponsored 18 bills in the 117th Congress (2021–2022), with that total corroborated in multiple entries and contextualized against peer performance ^{[1] [2]}. Conflicting entries in the dataset reflect different timeframes, incomplete records, or search/filter artifacts and therefore do not overturn the 18-bill finding ^{[3] [4] [5]}. Readers should note that the dataset flags archival and API limitations; verifying beyond this corpus would require consulting primary legislative databases filtered explicitly to the 117th Congress for final confirmation ^{[6] [7]}.