Ballenger was the representative for North Carolina’s 10th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1986 to 2004.
![Photo of Rep. Cass Ballenger [R-NC10, 1986-2004]](/static/legislator-photos/400015-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Ballenger is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2004 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 Ballenger sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1999 to Dec 7, 2004. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Ballenger was the primary sponsor of 7 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 1465 (108th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4832 East Highway 27 in Iron Station, North Carolina, as the “General Charles Gabriel Post …
- H.R. 5178 (106th): Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act
- H.R. 1749 (106th): To designate Wilson Creek in Avery and Caldwell Counties, North Carolina, as a component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
- H.R. 4109 (106th): Worker Economic Opportunity Act
- H.R. 2864 (105th): Occupational Safety and Health Administration Compliance Assistance Authorization Act of 1998
- H.R. 2877 (105th): To amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
- H.J.Res. 353 (102nd): Designating January 4, 1992 through January 10, 1992, as “Braille Literacy Week”.
Does 7 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
Ballenger sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (20%) Labor and Employment (20%) Commerce (16%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (12%) Law (10%) International Affairs (8%) Armed Forces and National Security (8%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (4%)
Recent Bills
Some of Ballenger’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.Res. 847 (108th): Honoring the life of astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr.
- H.R. 4796 (108th): Employee Stock Ownership Plan Promotion and Improvement Act of 2004
- H.R. 3393 (108th): To amend title 40, United States Code, to add Catawba and Cleveland …
- H.R. 2516 (108th): To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to clarify that …
- H.R. 1778 (108th): Employee Ownership for the Twenty-First Century Act
- H.R. 1465 (108th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at …
- H.R. 1111 (108th): Uniformed Services Divorce Equity Act of 2003
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1987 to Dec 2004, Ballenger missed 391 of 9,848 roll call votes, which is 4.0%. This is on par with the median of 2.9% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2004. 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
- 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
