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Rep. Jeff Fortenberry

Former Representative for Nebraska’s 1st District

pronounced jef // FOHR-un-beh-ree

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Fortenberry was the representative for Nebraska’s 1st congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 2005 to 2022.

Fortenberry was among the Republican legislators who participated in President Trump’s months-long, multifarious attempted coup during the 2020 presidential election and culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. Shortly after the election, Fortenberry joined a case before the Supreme Court calling for all the votes for president in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — states that were narrowly won by Democrats — to be discarded, in order to change the outcome of the election, based on lies and a preposterous legal argument which the Supreme Court rejected. (Following the rejection of several related cases before the Supreme Court, another legislator who joined the case called for violence.) The January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol disrupted Congress’s count of electors that determined the outcome of the presidential election with the goal to prevent President Joe Biden from taking office.

Misconduct

Rep. Fortenberry was convicted on three counts, one of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two of making false statements to federal investigators, in 2022, related to illegal campaign contributions from a foreign national to his 2016 re-election campaign. On March 31, 2022, he resigned from Congress. On April 1st, the House Committee on Ethics closed its investigation.

Oct. 19, 2021 Fortenberry released a video in which he said he expected to be indicted on lying to the FBI.
Oct. 19, 2021 Department of Justice indicted Fortenberry on one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two of making false statements to federal investigators
Dec. 3, 2021 House Committee on Ethics established an Investigative Subcommittee, but deferred action pending the results of the Department of Justice investigation
Mar. 24, 2022 Fortenberry was convicted on three counts, one of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two of making false statements to federal investigators, in 2022, related to campaign contributions from a foreign national to his 2016 re-election campaign.
Mar. 26, 2022 Fortenberry announced he would resign effective March 31, 2022.
Apr. 1, 2022 House Committee on Ethics closed the investigation
Photo of Rep. Jeff Fortenberry [R-NE1, 2005-2022]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Fortenberry 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 Fortenberry has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Dec 2, 2022. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Fortenberry was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:

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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

Fortenberry sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (41%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (21%) International Affairs (18%) Agriculture and Food (9%) Taxation (6%) Environmental Protection (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Fortenberry recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Fortenberry voted Yea

Passed 231/183 on Feb 12, 2020.

Fortenberry voted Nay

Fortenberry voted Yea

Passed 338/88 on May 13, 2015.
The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of …

Fortenberry voted Yea

Passed 219/206 on Dec 11, 2014.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 [pdf], which was approved by the House on December …

Fortenberry voted Aye

Fortenberry voted Nay

Fortenberry voted No

Passed 304/117 on Jun 23, 2011.
The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack …

Fortenberry voted Yea

Missed Votes

From Jan 2005 to Mar 2022, Fortenberry missed 337 of 11,595 roll call votes, which is 2.9%. This is on par with the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Mar 2022. 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: