Bates was the representative for California’s 44th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1983 to 1990.
Misconduct
In 1989, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated Bates for sexual harassment and improper campaign activity in congressional office. On Oct. 18, 1989, the committee adopted a public letter of reproval. In 1989, he admitted to violations and wrote personal letter of apology.
| Oct. 18, 1989 | House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct adopted a public letter of reproval |
| 1989 | Admitted to violations and wrote personal letter of apology. |
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Bates is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1990 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 Bates sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1985 to Oct 27, 1990. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Bates was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 1602 (101st): Trauma Care Systems Planning and Development Act of 1990
- H.J.Res. 291 (101st): Designating November 16, 1989, as “Interstitial Cystitis Awareness Day”.
- H.J.Res. 380 (101st): Designating October 4, 1989, as “Patient Account Management Day”.
- H.J.Res. 347 (100th): A joint resolution recognizing the identical plaques initiated by Sami Bandak, created by Margareta Hennix and Ginvanni Bizzini, and depicting the Calmare Nyckel, the ship that brought …
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
Bates sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (23%) Health (21%) Environmental Protection (18%) Armed Forces and National Security (12%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (9%) International Affairs (7%) Education (5%) Economics and Public Finance (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Bates recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5709 (101st): Access to Professional Sports Programming Act
- H.R. 5694 (101st): Access to Professional Sports Programming Act
- H.R. 5463 (101st): To amend title 10, United States Code, to permit the reimbursement of …
- H.R. 5462 (101st): To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to require the Administrator …
- H.R. 5461 (101st): To provide for the disposal of Government-owned contractor-operated industrial facilities under the …
- H.R. 5452 (101st): Facilitation in Licensing for International Medical Graduates Act
- H.R. 5188 (101st): To prohibit the spraying of toxic pesticides over densely populated areas.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1983 to Oct 1990, Bates missed 190 of 3,639 roll call votes, which is 5.2%. This is on par with the median of 4.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1990. 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
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
