Rep. James “Jim” McGovern

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2020 Report Card for McGovern.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

McGovern 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 ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills McGovern has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Mar 3, 2021. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Enacted Legislation

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

• H.R. 1872 (115th): Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018
• H.R. 3105 (115th): Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act
• H.R. 4405 (112th): Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012
• H.R. 4017 (111th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 43 Maple Avenue in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, as the “Ann Marie Blute Post Office”.
• H.R. 2478 (111th): Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009
• H.R. 6874 (110th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 156 Taunton Avenue in Seekonk, Massachusetts, as the “Lance Corporal Eric Paul Valdepenas Post Office ...
• H.R. 4152 (109th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 320 High Street in Clinton, Massachusetts, as the “Raymond J. Salmon Post Office”.

View All »

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

McGovern sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (47%) Health (22%) Armed Forces and National Security (12%) Energy (6%) Agriculture and Food (6%) Private Legislation (6%)

Recent Bills

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

• H.Res. 166: Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1319) to provide for reconciliation pursuant ...
• H.R. 1155: Ensuring that goods made with forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region ...
• H.Res. 91: Providing for consideration of the Resolution (H. Res. 72) removing a certain Member ...
• H.Res. 73: Providing the Sergeant-at-Arms with the authority to fine Members, Delegates, or the Resident ...
• H.Res. 41: Providing for consideration of the resolution (H. Res. 24) impeaching Donald John Trump, ...
• H.Con.Res. 1: Regarding consent to assemble outside the seat of government.
• H.Res. 11: Fixing the daily hour of meeting of the First Session of the One ...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 1997 to Mar 2021, McGovern missed 234 of 15,724 roll call votes, which is 1.5%. This is on par with the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

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