Rep. Barton “Bart” Gordon
Former Representative for Tennessee’s 6th District
Gordon was the representative for Tennessee’s 6th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1985 to 2010.
![Photo of Rep. Barton “Bart” Gordon [D-TN6, 1985-2010]](/static/legislator-photos/400155-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Gordon is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2010 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 Gordon sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2005 to Dec 21, 2010. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Gordon was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 5116 (111th): America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010
- H.R. 2923 (111th): Combat Methamphetamine Enhancement Act of 2010
- H.R. 3819 (111th): To extend the commercial space transportation liability regime.
- H.R. 3403 (110th): NET 911 Improvement Act of 2008
- H.R. 365 (110th): Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act of 2007
- H.R. 2272 (110th): America COMPETES Act
- H.R. 361 (108th): Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act
Does 10 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
Gordon sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Science, Technology, Communications (20%) Government Operations and Politics (18%) Economics and Public Finance (13%) Energy (13%) Health (11%) Education (9%) Law (8%) Environmental Protection (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Gordon recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5866 (111th): Nuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 2010
- H.R. 5781 (111th): National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010
- H.R. 5716 (111th): Safer Oil and Natural Gas Drilling Technology Research and Development Act
- H.R. 5325 (111th): America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010
- H.Res. 1307 (111th): Honoring the National Science Foundation for 60 years of service to the …
- H.R. 5116 (111th): America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010
- H.R. 4906 (111th): ARPA-E Reauthorization Act of 2010
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1985 to Dec 2010, Gordon missed 604 of 15,490 roll call votes, which is 3.9%. This is on par with the median of 3.1% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2010. 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
