Joe Wilson, Representative for South Carolina's 2nd Congressional District

Wilson is the representative for South Carolina’s 2^nd congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. He has served since Dec 18, 2001. Wilson’s current term ends on Jan 3, 2019.

Alleged misconduct & resolution

In 2010 Wilson was investigated for keeping the difference between his requested travel per diems and the amount he actually spent. The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct recommended no further action.

Jul. 30, 2010	House Office of Congressional Ethics recommended that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct further review the allegations
Dec. 31, 2010	House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct recommended no further action

In September 2009, Rep. Wilson heckled President Obama during an address to Congress by yelling "You lie!". A week later, the House reprimanded him, 240-179.

Sep. 9, 2009	Wilson heckled President Obama during an address to Congress by yelling "You lie!".
Sep. 15, 2009	House reprimanded Rep. Wilson, 240-179

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 Report Card for Wilson.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Wilson 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 Wilson has sponsored and cosponsored. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Americans for Prosperity: 93% NumbersUSA: 85% United States Chamber of Commerce: 83% The Club for Growth: 72% FreedomWorks: 70% NIAC Action: D The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: D American Civil Liberties Union: 5% League of Conservation Voters: 3% Human Rights Campaign: 0% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 0%

Committee Membership

Joe Wilson sits on the following committees:

Vice Chair, House Committee on Education and the Workforce
- Member, Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
- Member, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
House Committee on Armed Services
- Chair, Subcommittee on Readiness
- Member, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
- Member, Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats
- Member, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade

Enacted Legislation

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

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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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Wilson sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (53%) Armed Forces and National Security (19%) Labor and Employment (8%) Education (8%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Wilson’s Vote	Vote Description
Aye	H.J.Res. 43: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule submitted by Secretary of Health and Human Services relating ... Feb 16, 2017. Passed 230/188. Joe Biden never got the opportunity to break a single 50-50 Senate tie in eight years as vice president. Mike Pence has already broken two. One from last month has since become law: a measure allowing states to withhold federal Planned Parenthood funding. (The other ...
Yea	H.R. 1314: Trade Act of 2015 Oct 28, 2015. Passed 266/167. This vote turned this bill into the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, by replacing the text of the bill in whole. H.R. 1314 was previously the Trade Act of 2015.
Yea	H.R. 597: Reform Exports and Expand the American Economy Act Oct 27, 2015. Passed 313/118. House Democrats and a portion of the Republican House majority teamed up last week to win an important battle in the fight to bring back the Export-Import bank, a quasi-governmental agency that provides subsidies to foreign companies buying American goods. On Monday, October, 26, 2015, ...
Yea	H.Res. 450: Providing for the consideration of the bill (H.R. 597) to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank of the United States, ... Oct 27, 2015. Passed 275/154.
Aye	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. ...
Yea	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 ...
Aye	H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 Sep 17, 2014. Passed 319/108.
Nay	S. 1603 (113th): Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act Sep 16, 2014. Passed 359/64.
Aye	H.R. 1249 (112th): Leahy-Smith America Invents Act Jun 23, 2011. Passed 304/117. 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 Obama on September 16, 2011. The law represents the most significant legislative change to the U.S. patent system since the ...
Nay	S. 3729 (111th): National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010 Sep 29, 2010. Passed 304/118.
Nay	H.R. 1830 (110th): To extend the authorities of the Andean Trade Preference Act until February 29, 2008. Jun 27, 2007. Passed 365/59.

Missed Votes

From Dec 2001 to Nov 2018, Wilson missed 223 of 11,724 roll call votes, which is 1.9%. This is on par with 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
2001 Oct-Dec	9	0	0.0%	0^th
2002 Jan-Mar	79	1	1.3%	34^th
2002 Apr-Jun	203	1	0.5%	15^th
2002 Jul-Sep	141	0	0.0%	0^th
2002 Oct-Nov	61	1	1.6%	41^st
2003 Jan-Mar	94	5	5.3%	79^th
2003 Apr-Jun	239	9	3.8%	67^th
2003 Jul-Sep	193	2	1.0%	34^th
2003 Oct-Dec	151	0	0.0%	0^th
2004 Jan-Mar	104	2	1.9%	31^st
2004 Apr-Jun	221	10	4.5%	70^th
2004 Jul-Sep	161	4	2.5%	41^st
2004 Oct-Dec	58	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Jan-Mar	90	2	2.2%	38^th
2005 Apr-Jun	272	2	0.7%	29^th
2005 Jul-Sep	146	2	1.4%	44^th
2005 Oct-Dec	163	2	1.2%	27^th
2006 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Apr-Jun	276	22	8.0%	93^rd
2006 Jul-Sep	159	14	8.8%	92^nd
2006 Nov-Dec	27	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Jan-Mar	213	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Apr-Jun	393	1	0.3%	8^th
2007 Jul-Sep	317	3	0.9%	23^rd
2007 Oct-Dec	263	2	0.8%	15^th
2008 Jan-Mar	149	3	2.0%	33^rd
2008 Apr-Jun	321	12	3.7%	61^st
2008 Jul-Sep	205	2	1.0%	26^th
2008 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Jan-Mar	174	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Apr-Jun	303	3	1.0%	27^th
2009 Jul-Sep	268	3	1.1%	34^th
2009 Oct-Dec	246	3	1.2%	27^th
2010 Jan-Mar	195	5	2.6%	46^th
2010 Apr-Jun	219	8	3.7%	61^st
2010 Jul-Sep	151	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Nov-Dec	99	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Jan-Mar	212	1	0.5%	26^th
2011 Apr-Jun	281	17	6.0%	89^th
2011 Jul-Sep	247	4	1.6%	54^th
2011 Oct-Dec	208	1	0.5%	18^th
2012 Jan-Mar	151	1	0.7%	24^th
2012 Apr-Jun	299	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Jul-Sep	152	2	1.3%	47^th
2012 Nov-Dec	51	1	2.0%	38^th
2013 Jan-Jan	5	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Mar	89	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Apr-Jun	215	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jul-Sep	200	1	0.5%	26^th
2013 Oct-Dec	137	3	2.2%	56^th
2014 Jan-Mar	148	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Apr-Jun	219	26	11.9%	92^nd
2014 Jul-Sep	147	4	2.7%	70^th
2014 Nov-Dec	49	1	2.0%	55^th
2015 Jan-Mar	144	5	3.5%	70^th
2015 Apr-Jun	244	7	2.9%	73^rd
2015 Jul-Sep	139	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Oct-Dec	177	8	4.5%	86^th
2016 Jan-Mar	137	1	0.7%	18^th
2016 Apr-Jun	204	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Jul-Sep	232	1	0.4%	23^rd
2016 Nov-Dec	48	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	208	1	0.5%	23^rd
2017 Apr-Jun	136	2	1.5%	45^th
2017 Jul-Sep	199	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Oct-Dec	167	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Jan-Mar	129	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Apr-Jun	184	12	6.5%	78^th
2018 Jul-Sep	102	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Nov-Nov	5	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

Joe Wilson is pronounced:

joh // WIL-sun

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In
I i	pin
J j	jam
L l	leg
N n	not
OH oh	most
S s	sit
U u	cup
W w	will

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Rep. Joe Wilson

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