How Many Bills Has AOC Passed? Amendments, Votes, and Record

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not had a standalone bill she authored signed into law since joining the House in January 2019. What she has passed, in the strict legal sense, is three amendments enacted as part of larger spending and pandemic relief packages. She has also voted for major legislation that became law, including the Respect for Marriage Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, and has moved additional amendments through the House that did not survive the Senate. So the honest answer to how many bills AOC has passed depends on what counts: zero of her own bills, three amendments in law, and a longer list of votes and advocacy that shaped legislation others led.¹

The Three Amendments Signed Into Law

Attaching amendments to must-pass bills is the most reliable route for a junior House member, especially one in the minority. The parent bill carries the amendment through both chambers and to the President’s desk. Ocasio-Cortez landed three in her first term, while Republicans held the Senate and White House.¹

Opioid Treatment Funding

One amendment redirected $5 million away from Drug Enforcement Administration operations and toward opioid addiction treatment programs. It rode through as part of the House Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.¹

Vieques Cleanup

A second amendment secured $10 million to remove toxic military ordnance from Vieques, an island off Puerto Rico’s southeast coast used as a bombing range and training site for more than 60 years. The provision required the use of closed detonation chambers rather than open-air detonation.¹

FEMA COVID-19 Funeral Assistance

Working with Senator Chuck Schumer, Ocasio-Cortez helped create a FEMA Funeral Assistance Program through two COVID-19 relief packages in December 2020 and March 2021. The program reimbursed families for funeral costs tied to COVID-19 deaths. Her district in the Bronx and Queens had some of the highest death tolls in the country.²

Amendments That Passed the House but Not the Senate

By the end of 2021 she had submitted 30 amendments to various bills, and several cleared the House without making it into a final law. Two were attached to the National Defense Authorization Act. One blocked weapons sales to the Saudi Arabian military unit responsible for the murder of U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi.³ The other required the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretary of State and the CIA, to conduct a declassification review of records related to U.S. involvement in the 1973 military coup in Chile.⁴

She also pushed an amendment to double funding for replacing lead water infrastructure in schools and childcare programs.¹ In 2024, she joined Representative Grace Meng and Senator Schumer to secure a provision in the Water Resources Development Act authorizing nearly $190 million for Army Corps of Engineers flood work in Queens.⁵

Major Laws She Voted For

Her legislative record also includes votes on landmark laws written by others.

Respect for Marriage Act

The Respect for Marriage Act repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and required the federal government to recognize any marriage valid in the state where it was performed, covering same-sex and interracial couples. Ocasio-Cortez voted yes when the bill passed the House 267 to 157 in July 2022.⁶⁷

Inflation Reduction Act

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included roughly $369 billion in energy security and climate spending. It was largely a Senate-driven reconciliation bill. Ocasio-Cortez voted for it in the House and used her platform to build public support for its climate provisions.⁸

American Climate Corps

Ocasio-Cortez co-led a letter with 44 other lawmakers urging the Biden Administration to create a Civilian Climate Corps by executive action. The resulting American Climate Corps launched in 2023 as a workforce training program, placing more than 20,000 young people into paid positions in clean energy, climate resilience, land conservation, and environmental justice in its first year.⁹¹⁰ It exists as an executive program, not a statute.

Bills She Introduced That Have Not Passed

Her most recognized proposal is the Green New Deal resolution (H.Res. 109), introduced in the 116th Congress. It called for a 10-year national mobilization on climate change paired with clean energy and infrastructure jobs. It never received a House floor vote. She reintroduced it in April 2021 with more than 115 co-sponsors, and it again did not advance.¹

In her first term she introduced 23 pieces of legislation, including the Loan Shark Prevention Act to cap credit card interest rates at 15% and a package called “A Just Society” covering the federal poverty line, immigrant access to safety net programs, living wages for federal contractors, and renters’ rights.¹ She has since introduced bills on paid family leave, warehouse worker protections, police accountability, and fossil fuel subsidies.¹¹ None of them have passed.

District Funding

Separate from bills, Ocasio-Cortez has used the congressional earmarking process to direct federal dollars to NY-14. For fiscal year 2026 she secured $14.2 million across 15 community projects in the Bronx and Queens, including subway accessibility upgrades, food bank warehouse improvements, coastal resilience work, and reentry services.¹² Community project funding is not a bill and does not appear in bill-passage counts.

How Her Record Compares

By raw bill-passage numbers, the record looks thin. The Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked her 230th out of 240 House Democrats during the 116th Congress, her first term. That standing largely reflects the position of junior minority-party members generally: they rarely move standalone bills, and the top of the ranking is dominated by committee chairs and members in the bipartisan center. Her concrete legislative wins come through amendments to larger bills, coalition votes on major legislation, and appropriations directed to her district.

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Representative Ocasio-Cortez. About
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Representative Ocasio-Cortez. Sen. Schumer, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Announce Critical New Details on FEMA Funeral Assistance Program
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Representative Ocasio-Cortez. Rep. AOC’s NDAA Amendments on Colombia, Saudi Arabia Pass House
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Representative Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez Submits Amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act
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Representative Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez, Meng, Schumer Secure $190 Million To Help Address Flooding in Queens
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Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. Vote Details – Roll Call 373
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Congressman Jerry Nadler. House Passes Nadler’s Respect for Marriage Act
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Representative Ocasio-Cortez. Explained: The Inflation Reduction Act
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Senator Martin Heinrich. Heinrich Welcomes Creation of American Climate Corps
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US EPA. Biden-Harris Administration Launches Nationwide Environmental Justice Climate Corps
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LegiScan. US Congress Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – All Sessions – House – Bills – Introduced
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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez Secures $14.2 Million in FY26 Federal Community Project Funding for 15 Projects in The Bronx and Queens