Emerson was the representative for Missouri’s 8th congressional district and was most recently a Republican (1997-2013) and previously an Independent (1997-1997). She served from 1997 to 2013.
![Photo of Rep. Jo Ann Emerson [R-MO8, 1997-2013]](/static/legislator-photos/400121-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Emerson is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2013 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 Emerson sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2007 to Jan 1, 2013. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Emerson was the primary sponsor of 6 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 2434 (112th): Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2012
- H.R. 342 (110th): To designate the United States courthouse located at 555 Independence Street in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as the “Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr. United States Courthouse”.
- H.R. 5401 (109th): Lewis and Clark Commemorative Coin Correction Act
- H.R. 4037 (108th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 475 Kell Farm Drive in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as the “Richard G. Wilson Processing and …
- H.R. 3433 (108th): To transfer federal lands between the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior.
- H.R. 2474 (108th): To authorize the Congressional Hunger Center to award Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowships for fiscal years 2003 and 2004.
Does 6 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
Emerson sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (32%) Economics and Public Finance (18%) Health (18%) Taxation (11%) International Affairs (7%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%) Social Welfare (7%)
Recent Bills
Some of Emerson’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 314 (113th): Inspector General Improvement Act of 2013
- H.J.Res. 18 (113th): Proposing an amendment to the Constitution to provide for a balanced budget …
- H.J.Res. 19 (113th): Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States giving Congress …
- H.R. 315 (113th): Synthetic Cathinones Control Act of 2013
- H.R. 313 (113th): Government Spending Accountability Act of 2013
- H.R. 6723 (112th): Inspector General Improvement Act of 2012
- H.R. 6312 (112th): Synthetic Cathinones Control Act of 2012
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1997 to Jan 2013, Emerson missed 370 of 10,994 roll call votes, which is 3.4%. This is worse than the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jan 2013. 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
