Murtha was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1973 to 2010.
Alleged misconduct & resolution
In 2009 Murtha was investigated for soliciting campaign contributions in exchange for legislative outcomes. The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct dismissed the charges. On February 8, 2010, Representative Murtha died.
| Dec. 2, 2009 | House Office of Congressional Ethics recommended that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct dismiss the allegations |
| Feb. 8, 2010 | Representative Murtha died. |
| Feb. 26, 2010 | House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct dismissed the charges on the OCE's recommendation |
In 1981, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated Murtha for bribery and conspiracy as part of ABSCAM investigation. On Jul. 28, 1981, the charges were dismissed and the Special Counsel resigned.
| Jul. 28, 1981 | House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct preliminary inquiry voted (May 28, 1981); dismissed (July 28, 1981) and Special Counsel resigned |
![Photo of Rep. John Murtha [D-PA12, 1973-2010]](/static/legislator-photos/400286-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Murtha is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2010 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 Murtha sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2005 to Dec 21, 2010. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Murtha was the primary sponsor of 16 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 3326 (111th): Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010
- H.R. 3222 (110th): Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2008
- H.R. 1521 (108th): Johnstown Flood National Memorial Boundary Adjustment Act of 2004
- H.R. 3277 (108th): Marine Corps 230th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act
- H.R. 4682 (107th): Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site Boundary Revision Act
- H.R. 3917 (107th): Flight 93 National Memorial Act
- H.R. 4650 (103rd): Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 1995
Does 16 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
Murtha sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Armed Forces and National Security (21%) Government Operations and Politics (17%) Law (14%) International Affairs (14%) Education (10%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (10%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%) Taxation (7%)
Recent Bills
Some of Murtha’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 3326 (111th): Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010
- H.R. 2022 (111th): K-IRA Act
- H.R. 5497 (110th): Kids IRA Act of 2008 (K-IRA)
- H.R. 3222 (110th): Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2008
- H.R. 1027 (110th): To amend title 36, United States Code, to authorize the spouse and ...
- H.J.Res. 18 (110th): To redeploy U.S. forces from Iraq.
- H.J.Res. 13 (110th): Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to ...
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1973 to Feb 2010, Murtha missed 1,813 of 21,734 roll call votes, which is 8.3%. This is much worse than the median of 3.1% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Feb 2010. 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
