Rep. Bennie Thompson

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Thompson.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Thompson is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives 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 Thompson has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Mar 22, 2023. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Bennie Thompson sits on the following committees:

• House Committee on Homeland Security Ranking Member

Enacted Legislation

Thompson was the primary sponsor of 15 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• H.R. 490 (117th): DHS MORALE Act
• H.R. 8993 (116th): Department of Homeland Security Intelligence and Cybersecurity Diversity Fellowship Program Act
• H.R. 2476 (116th): Securing American Nonprofit Organizations Against Terrorism Act of 2019
• H.R. 3500 (116th): Federal Advance Contracts Enhancement Act
• H.R. 251 (116th): Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program Extension Act
• H.R. 1204 (113th): Aviation Security Stakeholder Participation Act of 2014
• H.R. 2898 (113th): Division Realignment Act of 2013

View All »

Does 15 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Thompson sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (30%) Emergency Management (24%) Transportation and Public Works (21%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (6%) Science, Technology, Communications (6%) Immigration (6%) Education (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Thompson recently introduced the following legislation:

• H.R. 7778 (117th): Department of Homeland Security Seal Protection Act of 2022
• H.R. 7668 (117th): FEMA Equity Act
• H.Res. 1037 (117th): Recommending that the House of Representatives find Peter K. Navarro and Daniel …
• H.R. 6825 (117th): Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act of 2022
• H.Res. 851 (117th): Recommending that the House of Representatives find Mark Randall Meadows in contempt …
• H.Res. 780 (117th): Recognizing the service and sacrifices of the Transportation Security Administration’s employees and …
• H.Res. 730 (117th): Recommending that the House of Representatives find Stephen K. Bannon in contempt …

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Apr 1993 to Mar 2023, Thompson missed 745 of 19,139 roll call votes, which is 3.9%. This is much worse than the median of 1.5% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. 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.

Show the numbers...

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
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills