Rep. John Shimkus

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2020 Report Card for Shimkus.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Shimkus is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2020 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 Shimkus sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Dec 28, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Shimkus was the primary sponsor of 15 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• H.R. 2576 (114th): Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act
• H.R. 3262 (114th): To provide for the conveyance of land of the Illiana Health Care System of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Danville, Illinois.
• H.R. 2426 (114th): To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to easing regulatory burden with respect to certain class I and class II devices.
• H.R. 1407 (113th): Animal Drug User Fee Amendments of 2013
• H.R. 2629 (112th): Next Generation 9-1-1 Advancement Act of 2011
• H.R. 1287 (109th): Designating the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 312 East North Avenue in Flora, Illinois, as the “Robert T. Ferguson Post Office Building.”
• H.R. 389 (108th): Automatic Defibrillation in Adam’s Memory Act

View All »

Does 15 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Shimkus sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (65%) Science, Technology, Communications (15%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) International Affairs (10%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Shimkus recently introduced the following legislation:

• H.R. 6730 (116th): To authorize the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of …
• H.R. 6488 (116th): Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment of Broadband Infrastructure Act of 2020
• H.Res. 889 (116th): Recognizing the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on the 30th …
• H.Res. 300 (116th): Expressing support for the designation of August 23, 2019, as Black Ribbon …
• H.R. 6294 (115th): REVAMP Act
• H.R. 5804 (115th): Post-Surgical Injections as an Opioid Alternative Act
• H.R. 4842 (115th): Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment of Broadband Infrastructure Act of 2018

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 1997 to Dec 2020, Shimkus missed 459 of 15,662 roll call votes, which is 2.9%. This is on par with the median of 2.3% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2020. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

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