Rep. Darrell Issa
Representative for California’s 48th District
pronounced DAR-ul // Ī-suh
Issa is the representative for California’s 48th congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 2023. Issa is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 70 years old.
He was previously the representative for California’s 50th congressional district as a Republican from 2021 to 2022; the representative for California’s 49th congressional district as a Republican from 2003 to 2018; and the representative for California’s 48th congressional district as a Republican from 2001 to 2002.
![Photo of Rep. Darrell Issa [R-CA48]](/static/legislator-photos/400196-200px.jpeg)
Our work to hold Congress accountable only matters if elections are decided by counting votes. President Trump, his senior government advisors, and Republican legislators collaborated to have the 2020 presidential election decided by themselves rather than by voters. Their attempts to suppress state-certified vote counts without adjudication in the courts and by using lies and fraudulent documents was a months-long, multifarious attempted coup.
Issa was among the Republican legislators who participated in the attempted coup. On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, Issa voted to omit Arizona and/or Pennsylvania from the counting of presidential electors, which could have altered the outcome of the election in Trump’s favor.
The January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol, led on the front lines by militant white supremacy groups, attempted to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office by disrupting Congress’s count of electors. In 2023, Trump advisors and associates pleaded guilty to or were convicted of submitting fraudulent slates of electors to Congress (which Trump was briefed on), abetting lies, tampering with voting machines after the election, and assaulting police officers at the Capitol, and Trump faces criminal charges for soliciting the Vice President to subvert Congress’s certification of the election, his role in the fraudulent slates of electors, and the insurrection at the Capitol.
Earmarks
Issa proposed $92 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:
- $39 million to Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District for “Murrieta Creek Flood Control, Environmental Restoration, and Recreation Project”
- $10 million to Caltrans 11 for “SR 52 Operational Improvements”
- $5 million to Rancho California Water District for “Rancho California Water District – Water Supply Reliability Project”
View all requests and justifications on Issa’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
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Issa 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 Issa has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Mar 5, 2024. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Darrell Issa sits on the following committees:
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House Committee on the Judiciary
- Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet subcommittee Chair
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House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Europe, Oversight and Accountability subcommittees
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House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
Research and Technology, Space and Aeronautics subcommittees
- House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Enacted Legislation
Issa was the primary sponsor of 18 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 423: Pala Band of Mission Indians Land Transfer Act of 2023
- H.R. 7705 (117th): Supreme Court Police Parity Act of 2022
- H.R. 3996 (115th): Protecting Access to the Courts for Taxpayers Act
- H.R. 3324 (115th): KIWI Act
- H.R. 136 (114th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1103 USPS Building 1103 in Camp Pendleton, California, as the “Camp Pendleton Medal of Honor …
- H.R. 4193 (113th): Smart Savings Act
- H.R. 4194 (113th): Government Reports Elimination Act of 2014
Does 18 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
Issa sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Commerce (22%) International Affairs (20%) Armed Forces and National Security (15%) Government Operations and Politics (10%) Native Americans (10%) Law (10%) Health (8%) Crime and Law Enforcement (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Issa recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 7471: Fighting Irrational Regulatory Enforcement to Avert Retailers’ Misfortune Act
- H.Res. 1028: Commending Southern California Wineries and Vineyards Resolution.
- H.R. 6671: Alexandra’s Law Act of 2023
- H.R. 6610: Passport System Reform and Backlog Prevention Act
- H.R. 6443: Jamul Indian Village Land Transfer Act
- H.R. 6444: JADC2 Implementation Act
- H.R. 6382: Stop Sexually Violent Predators Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2001 to Mar 2024, Issa missed 487 of 14,094 roll call votes, which is 3.5%. This is worse than the median of 1.9% 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
