Whitten was the representative for Mississippi’s 1st congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1973 to 1994.
He was previously the representative for Mississippi’s 2nd congressional district as a Democrat from 1941 to 1972.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Whitten is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1994 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 Whitten sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1989 to Nov 29, 1994. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Whitten was the primary sponsor of 107 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.J.Res. 553 (102nd): Making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 1993, and for other purposes.
- H.R. 5620 (102nd): Dire Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1992, Including Disaster Assistance to Meet the Present Emergencies Arising from the Consequences of Hurricane Andrew, Typhoon Omar, Hurricane Iniki and Other ...
- H.R. 5487 (102nd): Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1993
- H.R. 5132 (102nd): Dire Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1992, for Disaster Assistance To Meet Urgent Needs Because of Calamities Such as Those Which Occurred in Los Angeles and Chicago
- H.R. 4990 (102nd): Recission bill
- H.J.Res. 456 (102nd): Making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 1992, and for other purposes.
- H.J.Res. 157 (102nd): Dire Emergency Supplemental Appropriations and Transfers for Relief from the Effects of Natural Disasters, for Other Urgent Needs, and for Incremental Costs of “Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm” ...
Does 107 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
Whitten sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Economics and Public Finance (30%) Government Operations and Politics (19%) Environmental Protection (11%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (10%) Health (9%) Housing and Community Development (9%) International Affairs (7%) Native Americans (5%)
Recent Bills
Some of Whitten’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.Res. 326 (103rd): To inform the Senate that a quorum of the House has assembled.
- H.R. 3714 (103rd): Corinth, Mississippi, Battlefield Act of 1993
- H.R. 2907 (103rd): To revive and extend through December 31, 1996, a temporary reduction of ...
- H.Res. 4 (103rd): Authorizing the Clerk of the House to inform the President that the ...
- H.J.Res. 553 (102nd): Making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 1993, and for other purposes.
- H.R. 5911 (102nd): Dire Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1992, for Disaster Assistance to Meet the ...
- H.R. 5620 (102nd): Dire Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1992, Including Disaster Assistance to Meet the ...
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Nov 1941 to Nov 1994, Whitten missed 1,509 of 15,863 roll call votes, which is 9.5%. This is much worse than the median of 3.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Nov 1994. 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.
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
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
