Rep. Henry Waxman
Former Representative for California’s 33rd District
Waxman was the representative for California’s 33rd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 2013 to 2014.
He was previously the representative for California’s 30th congressional district as a Democrat from 2003 to 2012; the representative for California’s 29th congressional district as a Democrat from 1993 to 2002; and the representative for California’s 24th congressional district as a Democrat from 1975 to 1992.
![Photo of Rep. Henry Waxman [D-CA33, 2013-2014]](/static/legislator-photos/400425-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2014 Report Card for Waxman.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Waxman is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2014 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 Waxman sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2009 to Dec 11, 2014. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Waxman was the primary sponsor of 48 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 1256 (111th): Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
- H.R. 3667 (109th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 200 South Barrington Street in Los Angeles, California, as the “Karl Malden Station”.
- H.R. 5147 (108th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 23055 Sherman Way in West Hills, California, as the “Evan Asa Ashcraft Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 3184 (106th): For the relief of Zohreh Farhang Ghahfarokhi.
- H.R. 1873 (103rd): To require certain payments made to victims of Nazi persecution to be disregarded in determining eligibility for and the amount of benefits or services based on need.
- H.R. 2202 (103rd): Preventive Health Amendments of 1993
- H.J.Res. 214 (103rd): Designating September 9, 1993, and April 21, 1994, each as “National D.A.R.E. Day”.
Does 48 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
Waxman sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Private Legislation (24%) Environmental Protection (18%) Science, Technology, Communications (18%) Health (18%) Energy (12%) Transportation and Public Works (12%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Waxman recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 4364 (113th): Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2014
- H.R. 4298 (113th): GRID Act
- H.R. 4004 (113th): To authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to enter into enhanced-use leases …
- H.R. 3982 (113th): Open Internet Preservation Act of 2014
- H.R. 2910 (113th): Gun Violence Prevention and Reduction Act of 2013
- H.R. 1588 (113th): Medicare Drug Savings Act of 2013
- H.Res. 130 (113th): Recognizing the cultural and historical significance of Nowruz and acknowledging the Cyrus …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1975 to Dec 2014, Waxman missed 2,263 of 24,107 roll call votes, which is 9.4%. This is much worse than the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2014. 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
- 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
