Bowen was the representative for Mississippi’s 2nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1973 to 1982.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Bowen is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1982 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 Bowen sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1977 to Dec 21, 1982. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Bowen was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 4631 (97th): A bill to designate the United States Department of Agriculture Boll Weevil Research Laboratory building, located on the campus of Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, as the …
- H.R. 5523 (96th): A bill to establish an improved program for extra long staple cotton.
- H.R. 10930 (94th): An Act to repeal section 610 of the Agricultural Act of 1970 pertaining to the use of Commodity Credit Corporation funds for research and promotion and to …
- H.R. 2866 (94th): A bill to amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act.
- H.R. 6883 (93rd): An Act to amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 with respect to rice.
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
Bowen sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Agriculture and Food (33%) Taxation (13%) Government Operations and Politics (13%) Environmental Protection (13%) Energy (10%) Economics and Public Finance (8%) Water Resources Development (5%) Education (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Bowen recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.Res. 517 (97th): A resolution electing the Honorable William H. Natcher as Speaker pro tempore …
- H.Res. 329 (97th): A resolution amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to decrease …
- H.R. 5385 (97th): A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to repeal …
- H.R. 5126 (97th): A bill to amend section 103 of the Internal Revenue Code of …
- H.R. 5028 (97th): A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to exempt …
- H.R. 4631 (97th): A bill to designate the United States Department of Agriculture Boll Weevil …
- H.R. 3301 (97th): A bill to establish a loan program for the purpose of maintaining …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1973 to Dec 1982, Bowen missed 581 of 5,979 roll call votes, which is 9.7%. This is on par with the median of 7.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1982. 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
- 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
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
