Henry Cuellar, Representative for Texas's 28th Congressional District

Cuellar is the representative for Texas’s 28^th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 4, 2005. Cuellar is next up for reelection in 2018.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 Report Card for Cuellar.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Cuellar 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 liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Cuellar has sponsored and cosponsored. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

NIAC Action: A United States Chamber of Commerce: 84% Human Rights Campaign: 64% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 47% League of Conservation Voters: 42% FreedomWorks: 40% Americans for Prosperity: 32% American Civil Liberties Union: 29% NumbersUSA: 21% The Club for Growth: 17% The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: D

Committee Membership

Henry Cuellar sits on the following committees:

House Committee on Appropriations
- Member, Subcommittee on Defense
- Member, Subcommittee on Homeland Security

Enacted Legislation

Cuellar was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

View All »

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

Cuellar sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (80%) International Affairs (20%)

Recent Bills

Some of Cuellar’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Cuellar’s Vote	Vote Description
Aye	H.R. 3038: Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015, Part II Jul 15, 2015. Passed 312/119.
Aye	H.R. 2146: Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act Jun 18, 2015. Passed 218/208. This vote made H.R. 2146 the vehicle for passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal currently being negotiated. H.R. 2146 was originally introduced as a bill to address issues with retirement funds of federal law enforcement officers and firefighters. ...
Yea	H.Res. 305: Providing for consideration of the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 1314) to amend the Internal Revenue Code ... Jun 11, 2015. Passed 217/212.
Yea	H.R. 2577: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 Jun 9, 2015. Passed 216/210. This bill is the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, a yearly federal spending bill. The bill began as the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2016. However in a House vote on May 26, the ...
Yea	H.R. 2048: Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015 May 13, 2015. Passed 338/88. The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of ...
Aye	H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 Sep 17, 2014. Passed 319/108.
Aye	H.R. 1947 (113th): Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013 Jun 20, 2013. Failed 195/234.
Aye	H.R. 6233 (112th): Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012 Aug 2, 2012. Passed 223/197.
Aye	H.R. 1249 (112th): Leahy-Smith America Invents Act Jun 23, 2011. Passed 304/117. The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on September 16, 2011. The law represents the most significant change to the U.S. patent system since 1952, and ...
Nay	H.Res. 317 (111th): Recognizing the region from Manhattan, Kansas, to Columbia, Missouri, as the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, and ... Sep 15, 2009. Passed 312/108.

Missed Votes

From Jan 2005 to Sep 2018, Cuellar missed 178 of 9,989 roll call votes, which is 1.8%. This is on par with the median of 2.4% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
2005 Jan-Mar	90	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Apr-Jun	272	32	11.8%	95^th
2005 Jul-Sep	146	1	0.7%	27^th
2005 Oct-Dec	163	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Jan-Mar	81	2	2.5%	61^st
2006 Apr-Jun	276	4	1.4%	39^th
2006 Jul-Sep	159	1	0.6%	29^th
2006 Nov-Dec	27	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Jan-Mar	213	3	1.4%	43^rd
2007 Apr-Jun	393	4	1.0%	35^th
2007 Jul-Sep	317	5	1.6%	44^th
2007 Oct-Dec	263	5	1.9%	32^nd
2008 Jan-Mar	149	9	6.0%	72^nd
2008 Apr-Jun	321	7	2.2%	42^nd
2008 Jul-Sep	205	5	2.4%	48^th
2008 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Jan-Mar	174	4	2.3%	51^st
2009 Apr-Jun	303	1	0.3%	9^th
2009 Jul-Sep	268	5	1.9%	55^th
2009 Oct-Dec	246	4	1.6%	35^th
2010 Jan-Mar	195	5	2.6%	46^th
2010 Apr-Jun	219	3	1.4%	28^th
2010 Jul-Sep	151	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Nov-Dec	99	3	3.0%	45^th
2011 Jan-Mar	212	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Apr-Jun	281	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Jul-Sep	247	1	0.4%	22^nd
2011 Oct-Dec	208	1	0.5%	18^th
2012 Jan-Mar	151	2	1.3%	44^th
2012 Apr-Jun	299	1	0.3%	20^th
2012 Jul-Sep	152	1	0.7%	32^nd
2012 Nov-Dec	51	1	2.0%	38^th
2013 Jan-Jan	5	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Mar	89	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Apr-Jun	215	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jul-Sep	200	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Oct-Dec	137	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Jan-Mar	148	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Apr-Jun	219	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Jul-Sep	147	2	1.4%	49^th
2014 Nov-Dec	49	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Jan-Mar	144	4	2.8%	62^nd
2015 Apr-Jun	244	4	1.6%	58^th
2015 Jul-Sep	139	3	2.2%	64^th
2015 Oct-Dec	177	33	18.6%	98^th
2016 Jan-Mar	137	1	0.7%	18^th
2016 Apr-Jun	204	3	1.5%	40^th
2016 Jul-Sep	232	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Nov-Dec	48	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	208	1	0.5%	23^rd
2017 Apr-Jun	136	3	2.2%	59^th
2017 Jul-Sep	199	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Oct-Dec	167	7	4.2%	76^th
2018 Jan-Mar	129	2	1.6%	38^th
2018 Apr-Jun	184	5	2.7%	51^st
2018 Jul-Sep	86	0	0.0%	0^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
GPO Member Guide for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Henry Cuellar is pronounced:

HEN-ree // kwe-YAHR

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In
AH ah	calm
E e	bed
EE ee	meet
H h	hat
K k	king
N n	not
R r	rag
W w	will
Y y	cry

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Rep. Henry Cuellar

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