Frank was the representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1981 to 2012.
Misconduct
Frank faced an allegation of 1) use of personal residence for prostitution by third parties, 2) improper contacts with probation office on behalf of personal assistant, 3) improper dismissal of assistant’s parking tickets, and 4) sexual activity in the House gymnasium. Frank admitted preparing a memo containing misleading statements that could be perceived as an attempt to use political influence in a judicial matter and arranging improper dismissal of parking tickets for personal assistant. The committee recommended reprimand and restitution of parking tickets, 12-0 on July 20, 1990. On Jul. 26, 1990, he was reprimanded, 408-18.
| Jul. 20, 1990 | Preliminary inquiry voted (Sept. 12, 1989); Frank admitted preparing memo containing misleading statements that could be perceived as an attempt to use political influence in a judicial matter and arranged improper dismissal of parking tickets for personal assistant, both in violation of R. 43 (1); committee recommended reprimand and restitution of parking tickets, 12-0 (July 20, 1990). |
| Jul. 26, 1990 | House of Representatives Reprimanded, 408-18 |
![Photo of Rep. Barney Frank [D-MA4, 1981-2012]](/static/legislator-photos/400140-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Frank is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2013 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Frank sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2007 to Jan 1, 2013. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Frank was the primary sponsor of 28 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 5758 (111th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2 Government Center in Fall River, Massachusetts, as the “Sergeant Robert Barrett Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 5297 (111th): Small Business Jobs Act of 2010
- H.R. 5981 (111th): To increase the flexibility of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development with respect to the amount of premiums charged for FHA single family housing mortgage insurance, …
- H.R. 5872 (111th): General and Special Risk Insurance Funds Availability Act of 2010
- H.R. 5099 (111th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 15 South Main Street in Sharon, Massachusetts, as the “Michael C. Rothberg Post Office”.
- H.R. 4173 (111th): Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
- H.R. 2361 (111th): To require the accreditation of English language training programs, and for other purposes.
Does 28 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Frank sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Finance and Financial Sector (25%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (21%) Government Operations and Politics (13%) Law (10%) Economics and Public Finance (9%) Housing and Community Development (8%) Commerce (8%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Frank recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 6613 (112th): Markets and Trading Reorganization Act
- H.R. 6316 (112th): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude from income …
- H.R. 6193 (112th): Religious Workers Visa Act
- H.R. 6145 (112th): New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park Resources Assistance Act
- H.R. 5860 (112th): Executive Compensation Clawback Full Enforcement Act
- H.R. 5794 (112th): Fair Debt Collection Practices Clarification Act of 2012
- H.R. 5059 (112th): To extend the suspension of duty on 5-Chloro-3-hydroxy-2-methoxy-2-naphthanilide.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1981 to Jan 2013, Frank missed 883 of 18,814 roll call votes, which is 4.7%. This is worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jan 2013. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
- Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
