How we calculate the grades

Your Members of Congress have had numerous chances to help end LRA violence and support lasting peace in Uganda. Opportunities have included sponsoring legislation or resolutions, or writing letters to key U.S. and international policymakers about the crisis. Your elected representatives are graded on whether or not they acted on these opportunities.

Members of Congress also receive extra credit if they have chosen to travel to Uganda to see the war firsthand, or take other noteworthy actions to advance the cause such as originally introducing legislation or a resolution, or giving a public statement or floor speech on the issue.

We looked at when the senators or representatives came into office, and how many of the possible actions during their terms they have taken.  We used this to assign them letter grades, A through F.  The specific legislation, resolutions, and letters used to calculate our grades are listed and linked below:

United States Senate

Twelve Senate initiatives supported by Resolve Uganda were used to calculate the grades of your Senators. These initiatives are:

  • Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 (May 2009): This bill mandates the Obama administration to come up with a multilateral strategy to help protect civilians from the LRA and eliminate the threat to civilians posed by the rebel group, and also directs the US to support recovery and transitional justice in communities in northern Uganda affected by the conflict.
  • Senate Letter to President Yoweri Museveni (September 2008): This letter to President Museveni asks to stop the delays in fully implementing the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) in northern Uganda and take more drastic action to insure that war affected communities are efficiently provided for.
  • Senate letter to Appropriators (April 2008): This letter was addressed to the Senators in charge of appropriating international aid funds, and called for the U.S. to give 22 million dollars to help reconstruction efforts in Uganda.
  • Senate Concurrent Resolution 16 (March 2007): This resolution (passed in the House as well, as Concurrent Resolution 80) urged the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support the peaceful end to the war.
  • Senate Resolution 573 (September 2006): This resolution called for the Bush Administration to appoint a diplomat to support peace negotiations.
  • Senate Resolution 366 (February 2006): This resolution expressed concern for the victims of LRA violence, and established February 2-9, 2006 as a national week of prayer for the people of northern Uganda.      
  • Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act of 2004 (August 2004): This legislation was the first act of Congress in response to the war, and required the State Department to submit a report to Congress on what they were doing to end the war.


United States House of Representatives

Six House of Representatives initiatives supported by Resolve Uganda were used to calculate the grades of your Representatives.  These initiatives are:

  • Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 (May 2009): This bill mandates the Obama administration to come up with a multilateral strategy to help protect civilians from the LRA and eliminate the threat to civilians posed by the rebel group, and also directs the US to support recovery and transitional justice in communities in northern Uganda affected by the conflict.
  • House Concurrent Resolution 80 (June 2007): This resolution (passed in the Senate as well, as Concurrent Resolution 16) urged the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support the peaceful end to the war.