![Photo of Rep. Bill Foster [D-IL11]](/static/legislator-photos/412257-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2018 Report Card for Foster.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Foster 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 liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Foster has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Aug 23, 2019. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Bill Foster sits on the following committees:
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House Committee on Financial Services
- Member, Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions
- Member, Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets
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House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
- Member, Subcommittee on Energy
- Member, Subcommittee on Research and Technology
Enacted Legislation
Foster was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 5789: To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to provide for Medicaid coverage protections for pregnant and post-partum women while receiving inpatient treatment for a substance use ...
- H.R. 4960 (114th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 525 N Broadway in Aurora, Illinois, as the “Kenneth M. Christy Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 5278 (111th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 405 West Second Street in Dixon, Illinois, as the “President Ronald W. Reagan Post Office ...
Does 3 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
Foster sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (22%) Science, Technology, Communications (18%) Education (16%) Finance and Financial Sector (12%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) Immigration (9%) Taxation (7%) International Affairs (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Foster’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 4089: Second Chance for Students Act
- H.R. 3871: Protecting the Independent Funding of the Office of Financial Research Act
- H.R. 3837: National Fab Lab Network Act of 2019
- H.Res. 468: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Secretary of Defense ...
- H.R. 3561: Financial Stability Oversight Council Improvement Act of 2019
- H.R. 2987: National Security Accountability Act
- H.R. 2986: BEST Act
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Mar 2008 to Jul 2019, Foster missed 66 of 6,483 roll call votes, which is 1.0%. This is better than the median of 2.0% 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 and major life events.
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
