Barton was the representative for Texas’s 6th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1985 to 2018.
![Photo of Rep. Joe Barton [R-TX6, 1985-2018]](/static/legislator-photos/400018-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2018 Report Card for Barton.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Barton is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2018 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 Barton sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2013 to Dec 21, 2018. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Barton was the primary sponsor of 9 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 3298 (115th): Wounded Officers Recovery Act of 2017
- H.R. 6164 (109th): National Institutes of Health Reform Act of 2006
- H.R. 6 (109th): Energy Policy Act of 2005
- H.J.Res. 87 (107th): Yucca Mountain Development resolution
- H.R. 629 (105th): Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Consent Act
- H.R. 1791 (104th): Medicaid Certification Act of 1995
- H.R. 2749 (101st): To authorize the conveyance of a parcel of land in Whitney Lake, Texas.
Does 9 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
Barton sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (47%) Energy (24%) Commerce (18%) Taxation (12%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Barton recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 7217 (115th): IMPROVE Act
- H.R. 6511 (115th): Strategic Petroleum Reserve Reform Act
- H.R. 6488 (115th): SAVE Act
- H.R. 5930 (115th): Do Not Track Kids Act of 2018
- H.R. 3325 (115th): ACE Kids Act
- H.R. 3298 (115th): Wounded Officers Recovery Act of 2017
- H.R. 1821 (115th): DELIVER Act of 2017
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1985 to Dec 2018, Barton missed 1,191 of 20,835 roll call votes, which is 5.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2018. 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
