Rep. Bob Goodlatte
Former Representative for Virginia’s 6th District
pronounced bob // GUUD-lat
Goodlatte was the representative for Virginia’s 6th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1993 to 2018.
![Photo of Rep. Bob Goodlatte [R-VA6, 1993-2018]](/static/legislator-photos/400154-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2018 Report Card for Goodlatte.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Goodlatte is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2018 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 Goodlatte sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2013 to Dec 21, 2018. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Goodlatte was the primary sponsor of 16 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 5954 (115th): Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018
- H.R. 5447 (115th): Music Modernization Act
- H.R. 954 (115th): To remove the use restrictions on certain land transferred to Rockingham County, Virginia, and for other purposes.
- H.R. 6130 (114th): Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016
- H.R. 1068 (113th): To enact title 54, United States Code, “National Park Service and Related Programs”, as positive law.
- H.R. 1067 (113th): To make revisions in title 36, United States Code, as necessary to keep the title current and make technical corrections and improvements.
- H.R. 4323 (113th): Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2014
Does 16 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
Goodlatte sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Immigration (22%) Law (22%) Crime and Law Enforcement (16%) Economics and Public Finance (9%) Government Operations and Politics (9%) Commerce (9%) Arts, Culture, Religion (7%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Goodlatte recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 7068 (115th): End Catch and Release Act
- H.R. 6786 (115th): To protect the interests of each resident of intermediate care facilities for …
- H.R. 6730 (115th): Injunctive Authority Clarification Act of 2018
- H.R. 6417 (115th): AG and Legal Workforce Act
- H.R. 6136 (115th): Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018
- H.R. 5954 (115th): Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018
- H.R. 5447 (115th): Music Modernization Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1993 to Dec 2018, Goodlatte missed 146 of 17,170 roll call votes, which is 0.9%. This is better than the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2018. 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
