Cardiss Collins, former Representative for Illinois's 7th Congressional District

Collins was the representative for Illinois’s 7^th congressional district and was a Democrat. She served from 1973 to 1996.

Photo of Rep. Cardiss Collins [D-IL7, 1973-1996]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Collins is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1996 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 Collins sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Collins was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 10 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

Collins sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (22%) Commerce (16%) Health (15%) Law (14%) Labor and Employment (10%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (8%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%) Economics and Public Finance (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Collins recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jun 1973 to Sep 1996, Collins missed 2,155 of 12,881 roll call votes, which is 16.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Sep 1996. 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...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1973 Apr-Jun	97	2	2.1%	10^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	13	9.9%	81^st
1973 Oct-Dec	182	40	22.0%	88^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	17	21.5%	88^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	23	13.5%	62^nd
1974 Jul-Sep	148	1	0.7%	10^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	4	2.8%	19^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	22	32.4%	97^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	49	24.6%	93^rd
1975 Jul-Sep	154	24	15.6%	86^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	32	16.8%	92^nd
1976 Jan-Mar	106	35	33.0%	98^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	38	14.2%	71^st
1976 Jul-Sep	281	46	16.4%	85^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	19	19.0%	88^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	56	20.5%	96^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	25	12.6%	78^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	29	21.5%	93^rd
1978 Jan-Mar	150	80	53.3%	97^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	49	16.3%	69^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	90	29.2%	88^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	7	9.2%	65^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	15	23.8%	88^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	18	8.1%	60^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	44	22.2%	93^rd
1979 Oct-Dec	190	56	29.5%	96^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	35	23.6%	91^st
1980 Apr-Jun	197	41	20.8%	88^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	46	24.0%	92^nd
1980 Oct-Dec	67	51	76.1%	98^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	2	13.3%	73^rd
1981 Apr-Jun	90	14	15.6%	85^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	18	17.0%	90^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	8	5.6%	47^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	6	12.5%	73^rd
1982 Apr-Jun	119	6	5.0%	59^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	15	7.8%	67^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	19	19.2%	83^rd
1983 Jan-Mar	43	7	16.3%	80^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	40	22.0%	96^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	5	3.8%	49^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	20	14.0%	88^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	34	64.2%	99^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	5	2.2%	23^rd
1984 Jul-Sep	96	7	7.3%	66^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	5	13.9%	77^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	6	16.7%	84^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	19	12.3%	90^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	10	9.9%	77^th
1985 Oct-Dec	147	19	12.9%	94^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	54	88.5%	99^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	12	9.4%	87^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	17	8.4%	78^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	3	5.0%	55^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	7	17.9%	91^st
1987 Apr-Jun	187	15	8.0%	76^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	19	20.0%	94^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	29	17.4%	91^st
1988 Feb-Mar	49	5	10.2%	75^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	20	12.4%	88^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	18	11.8%	82^nd
1988 Oct-Oct	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	54^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	65	61.9%	100^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	90	70.3%	99^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	22	18.2%	97^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	23	38.3%	99^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	41	27.3%	98^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	1	0.5%	18^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jan-Mar	62	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	16	11.5%	92^nd
1991 Jul-Sep	81	2	2.5%	31^st
1991 Oct-Nov	162	28	17.3%	97^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	22	33.3%	99^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	31	16.8%	96^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	10	5.1%	68^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	3	7.3%	65^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	10	7.9%	88^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	9	4.7%	67^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	11	6.7%	86^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	1	0.7%	28^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	34	35.8%	99^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	26	11.9%	95^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	12	8.5%	85^th
1994 Oct-Nov	51	2	3.9%	68^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	17	6.1%	90^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	35	18.5%	98^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	21	9.1%	90^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	9	4.9%	75^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	72	65.5%	99^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	9	4.9%	74^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	61	37.4%	98^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
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. Cardiss Collins

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