Bill Foster, Representative for Illinois's 11th Congressional District

Foster is the representative for Illinois’s 11^th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Foster is next up for reelection in 2020 and serves until Jan 3, 2021 unless re-elected.

He was previously the representative for Illinois’s 14^th congressional district as a Democrat from 2008 to 2010.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 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 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 Sep 22, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Human Rights Campaign: 100% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 100% League of Conservation Voters: 94% NIAC Action: A American Civil Liberties Union: 82% United States Chamber of Commerce: 75% The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: B The Club for Growth: 23% NumbersUSA: 19% Americans for Prosperity: 18% FreedomWorks: 15%

Committee Membership

Bill Foster sits on the following committees:

House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
- Investigations and Oversight subcommittee Chair
Energy, Research and Technology subcommittees
House Committee on Financial Services

Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions, Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets subcommittees

Enacted Legislation

Foster was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:

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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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Foster sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Education (20%) Health (20%) Science, Technology, Communications (17%) Finance and Financial Sector (14%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) Government Operations and Politics (7%) Immigration (7%) International Affairs (6%)

Recent Bills

Some of Foster’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Foster voted Yea

S. 2322: CURD Act

Failed 230/162 on Dec 20, 2018.

Foster voted No

H.R. 2146: Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act

Passed 218/208 on Jun 18, 2015.

This vote made H.R. 2146 the vehicle for passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal currently being negotiated. H.R. ...

Foster voted Yea

H.R. 2048: Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015

Passed 338/88 on May 13, 2015.

The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of ...

Foster voted Yea

H.R. 83 (113th): Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015

Passed 219/206 on Dec 11, 2014.

This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 [pdf], which was approved by the House on December ...

Foster voted Aye

H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015

Passed 319/108 on Sep 17, 2014.

Foster voted Yea

H.R. 3393 (113th): Student and Family Tax Simplification Act

Passed 227/187 on Jul 24, 2014.

Foster voted Yea

H.Res. 565 (113th): Calling on Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., to appoint a special counsel to investigate the targeting ...

Passed 250/168 on May 7, 2014.

Foster voted No

H.R. 3309 (113th): Innovation Act

Passed 325/91 on Dec 5, 2013.

Foster voted Nay

H.Con.Res. 308 (111th): Providing for a conditional adjournment of the House of Representatives.

Passed 231/189 on Jul 29, 2010.

Foster voted Nay

H.Res. 830 (111th): Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 2442) to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and ...

Passed 221/193 on Oct 15, 2009.

Foster voted Nay

H.Res. 760 (111th): Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 324) to establish the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area, ...

Passed 244/177 on Sep 23, 2009.

Foster voted Nay

H.Res. 1214 (110th): Providing for consideration of the conference report to accompany the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 70) setting ...

Passed 220/199 on May 21, 2008.

Missed Votes

From Mar 2008 to Sep 2020, Foster missed 74 of 6,871 roll call votes, which is 1.1%. This is better than the median of 2.2% 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
2008 Jan-Mar	34	1	2.9%	49^th
2008 Apr-Jun	321	5	1.6%	31^st
2008 Jul-Sep	205	0	0.0%	0^th
2008 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Jan-Mar	174	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Apr-Jun	303	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Jul-Sep	268	1	0.4%	11^th
2009 Oct-Dec	246	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Jan-Mar	195	3	1.5%	30^th
2010 Apr-Jun	219	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Jul-Sep	151	3	2.0%	49^th
2010 Nov-Dec	99	1	1.0%	20^th
2013 Jan-Mar	89	3	3.4%	64^th
2013 Apr-Jun	215	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jul-Sep	200	2	1.0%	41^st
2013 Oct-Dec	137	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Jan-Mar	148	1	0.7%	23^rd
2014 Apr-Jun	219	4	1.8%	53^rd
2014 Jul-Sep	147	4	2.7%	67^th
2014 Nov-Dec	49	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Jan-Mar	144	1	0.7%	25^th
2015 Apr-Jun	244	1	0.4%	26^th
2015 Jul-Sep	139	1	0.7%	32^nd
2015 Oct-Dec	177	2	1.1%	52^nd
2016 Jan-Mar	137	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Apr-Jun	204	1	0.5%	19^th
2016 Jul-Sep	232	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Nov-Dec	48	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	208	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Apr-Jun	136	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jul-Sep	199	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Oct-Dec	167	8	4.8%	80^th
2018 Jan-Mar	129	4	3.1%	58^th
2018 Apr-Jun	184	3	1.6%	36^th
2018 Jul-Sep	102	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Nov-Dec	85	11	12.9%	85^th
2019 Jan-Mar	136	4	2.9%	68^th
2019 Apr-Jun	294	2	0.7%	36^th
2019 Jul-Sep	125	1	0.8%	55^th
2019 Oct-Dec	146	1	0.7%	27^th
2020 Jan-Mar	102	6	5.9%	76^th
2020 Apr-Jun	31	0	0.0%	0^th
2020 Jul-Sep	68	0	0.0%	0^th

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

Rep. Bill Foster

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Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Enacted Legislation

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Recent Bills

Voting Record

Key Votes

Foster voted Yea

Foster voted No

Foster voted Yea

Foster voted Yea

Foster voted Aye

Foster voted Yea

Foster voted Yea

Foster voted No

Foster voted Nay

Foster voted Nay

Foster voted Nay

Foster voted Nay

Missed Votes

Primary Sources