Joaquin Castro, Representative for Texas's 20th Congressional District

Castro is the representative for Texas’s 20^th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Castro is next up for reelection in 2018.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 Report Card for Castro.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Castro 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 liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Castro has sponsored and cosponsored. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Human Rights Campaign: 100% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 100% American Civil Liberties Union: 94% League of Conservation Voters: 94% NIAC Action: A The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: B United States Chamber of Commerce: 48% FreedomWorks: 25% NumbersUSA: 13% Americans for Prosperity: 5% The Club for Growth: 0%

Committee Membership

Joaquin Castro sits on the following committees:

House Committee on Foreign Affairs
- Member, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
- Member, Subcommittee on The Western Hemisphere
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
- Member, Subcommittee on Central Intelligence Agency
- Member, Subcommittee on Department of Defense Intelligence and Overhead Architecture

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Castro sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (31%) Education (17%) Armed Forces and National Security (14%) Government Operations and Politics (8%) Taxation (8%) Immigration (8%) Science, Technology, Communications (8%) Crime and Law Enforcement (6%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Castro’s Vote	Vote Description
Nay	H.R. 2825: DHS Authorization Act of 2017 Jul 20, 2017. Passed 386/41. H.R. 2825 authorizes the activities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and provides necessary oversight and guidance to the Department to ensure that it is effectively carrying out the mission of securing the homeland. A full section-by-section of the legislation can be found here ...
No	H.Res. 546: Providing for consideration of the conference report to accompany the bill (H.R. 22) to authorize funds for Federal-aid ... Dec 3, 2015. Passed 384/40.
No	H.R. 2146: Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act Jun 18, 2015. Passed 218/208. This vote made H.R. 2146 the vehicle for passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal currently being negotiated. H.R. 2146 was originally introduced as a bill to address issues with retirement funds of federal law enforcement officers and firefighters. ...
Not Voting	H.R. 2048: Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015 May 13, 2015. Passed 338/88. 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 the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of ...
Yea	H.R. 622: State and Local Sales Tax Deduction Fairness Act of 2015 Apr 16, 2015. Passed 272/152.
Nay	H.R. 83 (113th): Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 Dec 11, 2014. Passed 219/206. 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 11, 2014 and by the Senate on December 13, 2014. The bill was originally introduced on January 3, 2013 by ...
Aye	H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 Sep 17, 2014. Passed 319/108.
Nay	H.R. 5405 (113th): Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act Sep 16, 2014. Passed 320/102.
Nay	H.R. 4660 (113th): Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 May 30, 2014. Passed 321/87.
Nay	H.Res. 23 (113th): Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 152) making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September ... Jan 15, 2013. Passed 367/52.

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Sep 2018, Castro missed 139 of 3,638 roll call votes, which is 3.8%. This is worse than the median of 2.4% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
2013 Jan-Mar	89	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Apr-Jun	215	1	0.5%	24^th
2013 Jul-Sep	200	3	1.5%	52^nd
2013 Oct-Dec	137	25	18.2%	97^th
2014 Jan-Mar	148	7	4.7%	75^th
2014 Apr-Jun	219	1	0.5%	24^th
2014 Jul-Sep	147	1	0.7%	28^th
2014 Nov-Dec	49	1	2.0%	55^th
2015 Jan-Mar	144	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Apr-Jun	244	4	1.6%	58^th
2015 Jul-Sep	139	2	1.4%	53^rd
2015 Oct-Dec	177	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Jan-Mar	137	40	29.2%	98^th
2016 Apr-Jun	204	45	22.1%	98^th
2016 Jul-Sep	232	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Nov-Dec	48	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	208	4	1.9%	61^st
2017 Apr-Jun	136	1	0.7%	31^st
2017 Jul-Sep	199	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Oct-Dec	167	1	0.6%	24^th
2018 Jan-Mar	129	2	1.6%	38^th
2018 Apr-Jun	184	1	0.5%	17^th
2018 Jul-Sep	86	0	0.0%	0^th

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

Joaquin Castro is pronounced:

wah-KEEN // KAST-roh

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In
A a	cat
AH ah	calm
EE ee	meet
K k	king
N n	not
OH oh	most
R r	rag
S s	sit
T t	top
W w	will

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Rep. Joaquin Castro

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