Cathy McMorris Rodgers had never authored a single bill during her time in the legislature.
When asked to name an instance when she well represented her constituents' interests, she pointed to a bill she sponsored that would authorize judges to conduct procedural hearings by way of closed circuit television, thereby allowing defendants to be arraigned on video. In 1997, she co-sponsored legislation to ban same-sex marriage in Washington State. She is credited for sponsoring legislation to require the state reimburse rural hospitals for the cost of serving Medicaid patients, and for her work overcoming opposition in her own caucus to pass a controversial gas tax used to fund transportation improvements. Also during her first term in office, she co-sponsored the "Marriage Protection Amendment", an amendment to the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage that failed to pass the House in 2006. McMorris Rodgers co-introduced health information technology (IT) legislation, and co-leads a statewide health IT task force with Congressman Adam Smith, D-WA. In 2005, McMorris Rodgers sponsored the American Competitiveness Amendment to the College Access and Opportunity Act to improve math, science, and critical foreign language education. McMorris Rodgers sponsored the Pharmacy Competition and Consumer Choice Act of 2011. That same year, she sponsored bill H.R.2313, to repeal the authority to provide certain loans to the International Monetary Fund, but it never made it out of committee. In March 2013, McMorris Rodgers did not support the continuation of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, but sponsored a "watered-down" alternative bill. McMorris Rodgers sponsored legislation that would speed the licensing process for dams and promote energy production. 
