Fields was the representative for Texas’s 8th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1981 to 1996.
![Photo of Rep. Jack Fields [R-TX8, 1981-1996]](/static/legislator-photos/404068-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Fields is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1996 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 Fields sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Fields was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 3005 (104th): National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996
- H.R. 2519 (104th): Philanthropy Protection Act of 1995
- H.R. 4924 (103rd): Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994
- H.R. 664 (99th): A bill to amend the Panama Canal Act of 1979 with respect to the payment of interest on the investment of the United States.
Does 4 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
Fields sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (18%) Transportation and Public Works (14%) Law (14%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Science, Technology, Communications (10%) Education (10%) Commerce (9%) Finance and Financial Sector (9%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Fields recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 3957 (104th): FCC Modernization Act of 1996
- H.R. 3005 (104th): National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996
- H.R. 2979 (104th): Public Broadcasting Self-Sufficiency Act of 1996
- H.R. 2519 (104th): Philanthropy Protection Act of 1995
- H.R. 2131 (104th): Capital Markets Deregulation and Liberalization Act of 1995
- H.R. 1996 (104th): United States Olympic Checkoff Act of 1995
- H.R. 1869 (104th): Federal Communications Commission Authorization Act of 1995
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1981 to Sep 1996, Fields missed 540 of 7,845 roll call votes, which is 6.9%. This is much worse than the median of 2.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Sep 1996. 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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
