Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman
Representative for New Jersey’s 12th District
pronounced BAH-nee // WOT-sun KOHL-mun
Watson Coleman is the representative for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. She has served since Jan 6, 2015. Watson Coleman is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. She is 78 years old.
![Photo of Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman [D-NJ12]](/static/legislator-photos/412644-200px.jpeg)
Misconduct
Coleman was arrested at a protest in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building on July, 19 2022. The same month the Committee published a committee report indicating they will pay a $50 fine.
| Jul. 29, 2022 | House Committee on Ethics published a committee report indicating they will pay a $50 fine |
Earmarks
Watson Coleman proposed $39 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:
- $10 million to Township of Ewing for “Rebuilding of Ewing Senior & Community Center”
- $6 million to County of Mercer, New Jersey for “Trenton Mercer Airport Taxiway Project”
- $5 million to City of Plainfield for “Plainfield Smart City Project”
View all requests and justifications on Watson Coleman’s website »
View analysis and download spreadsheet from Demand Progress Education Fund »
These are earmark requests which may or may not survive the legislative process to becoming law. Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Across representatives who requested earmarks, the median total amount requested for this fiscal year was $39 million.
Earmarks are federal expenditures, tax benefits, or tariff benefits requested by a legislator for a specific entity. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. All earmark requests in the House of Representatives are published online for the public to review. We don’t have earmark requests for senators. The fiscal year begins on October 1 of the prior calendar year. Source: Appropriations.house.gov. Background: Earmark Disclosure Rules in the House
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2022 Report Card for Watson Coleman.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Watson Coleman 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 Watson Coleman has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Sep 21, 2023. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Bonnie Watson Coleman sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Watson Coleman was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 1893 (117th): Transportation Security Preparedness Act of 2021
- H.R. 370 (117th): Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Technical Corrections Act of 2021
- H.R. 445 (117th): For the relief of Yazmin Fabiola Juarez Coyoy.
- H.R. 6461 (115th): TSA National Deployment Force Act
- H.R. 2302 (115th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 259 Nassau Street, Suite 2 in Princeton, New Jersey, as the “Dr. John F. Nash, …
Does 5 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
Watson Coleman sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Taxation (25%) Crime and Law Enforcement (22%) Health (19%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (10%) Housing and Community Development (7%) Finance and Financial Sector (6%) Labor and Employment (6%) Government Operations and Politics (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Watson Coleman recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5421: EITC Modernization Act
- H.R. 5420: Workplace Overdose Reversal Kits to Save Lives Act
- H.R. 5065: Federal Jobs Guarantee Development Act of 2023
- H.R. 5064: Public Housing Fire Safety Act
- H.R. 4817: SHADE Act
- H.R. 4466: Renaming the National School Lunch Program Act of 2023
- H.R. 4393: Customer Non-Discrimination Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2015 to Sep 2023, Watson Coleman missed 57 of 4,890 roll call votes, which is 1.2%. This is better than the median of 1.7% 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.
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
