Jack Kemp, former Representative for New York's 31st Congressional District

Kemp was the representative for New York’s 31^st congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1983 to 1988.

He was previously the representative for New York’s 38^th congressional district as a Republican from 1973 to 1982; and the representative for New York’s 39^th congressional district as a Republican from 1971 to 1972.

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Kemp is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1988 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 Kemp sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1983 to Oct 22, 1988. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Kemp was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 10 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Kemp sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (18%) Economics and Public Finance (17%) Finance and Financial Sector (14%) Education (12%) Labor and Employment (12%) Social Welfare (11%) Taxation (8%) Government Operations and Politics (8%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Kemp recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1971 to Oct 1988, Kemp missed 1,595 of 9,363 roll call votes, which is 17.0%. This is much worse than the median of 5.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1988. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1971 Jan-Mar	22	1	4.5%	26^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	18	20.0%	78^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	9	12.2%	61^st
1971 Oct-Dec	134	10	7.5%	36^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	6	9.4%	49^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	5	4.4%	24^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	10	9.9%	56^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	5	10.0%	40^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	1	2.8%	29^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	14	7.3%	42^nd
1973 Jul-Sep	131	27	20.6%	89^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	0	0.0%	0^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	1	1.3%	14^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	10	5.9%	34^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	6	4.1%	38^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	10	7.1%	35^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	4	5.9%	55^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	18	9.0%	64^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	16	10.4%	72^nd
1975 Oct-Dec	191	10	5.2%	50^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	9	8.5%	59^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	25	9.4%	54^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	13	4.6%	40^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	4	4.0%	39^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	37	13.6%	80^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	21	10.6%	73^rd
1977 Oct-Dec	135	17	12.6%	76^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	17	11.3%	72^nd
1978 Apr-Jun	300	19	6.3%	39^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	71	23.1%	89^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	12	15.8%	82^nd
1979 Jan-Mar	63	2	3.2%	46^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	23	10.4%	71^st
1979 Jul-Sep	198	23	11.6%	74^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	45	23.7%	90^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	19	12.8%	70^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	26	13.2%	74^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	25	13.0%	73^rd
1980 Oct-Dec	67	18	26.9%	87^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	22	24.4%	93^rd
1981 Jul-Sep	106	27	25.5%	96^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	15	10.6%	70^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	3	6.2%	49^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	16	13.4%	84^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	25	13.0%	81^st
1982 Oct-Dec	99	20	20.2%	85^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	8	18.6%	86^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	24	13.2%	77^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	6	4.6%	55^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	15	10.5%	75^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	10	18.9%	85^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	31	13.9%	85^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	7	7.3%	64^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	10	27.8%	92^nd
1985 Jan-Mar	36	10	27.8%	96^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	11	7.1%	69^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	11	10.9%	84^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	19	12.8%	92^nd
1986 Jan-Mar	61	23	37.7%	98^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	12	9.4%	84^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	37	18.3%	95^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	12	20.0%	92^nd
1987 Jan-Mar	39	13	33.3%	98^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	93	49.7%	98^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	67	70.5%	99^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	166	99.4%	99^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	42	85.7%	99^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	75	46.6%	97^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	109	71.7%	99^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	49	55.1%	98^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
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

Rep. Jack Kemp

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