Major bills are dictated by party leaders and administrations, very rarely by normal senators and congresspeople.
He's been in the senate since 2007, 13 years. Before that he was a congressman for 16 years. He was an independent except for 2015-2016. Surprise surprise, that makes it hard to get things passed in a two party system. His votes matter. And he still has authored almost twice as many enacted bills as Obama.
