Rep. Joseph Patrick Kennedy

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Kennedy is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1998 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 Kennedy sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 1993 to Dec 17, 1998. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Kennedy was the primary sponsor of 12 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• H.J.Res. 389 (103rd): To designate the second Sunday in October of 1994 as “National Children’s Day”.
• H.R. 3616 (103rd): To require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, Americans who have been prisoners …
• H.J.Res. 240 (103rd): To authorize the placement of a memorial cairn in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, to honor the 270 victims of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight …
• H.R. 5453 (102nd): To designate the Central Square facility of the United States Postal Service in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the “Clifton Merriman Post Office Building”.
• H.J.Res. 469 (102nd): To designate the second Sunday in October of 1992 as “National Children’s Day”.
• H.J.Res. 183 (102nd): To designate the second Sunday in October 1991, as “National Children’s Day”.
• H.R. 3911 (101st): Attendant Allowance Adjustment Act

View All »

Does 12 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

Kennedy sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (21%) Commerce (14%) Economics and Public Finance (12%) Science, Technology, Communications (12%) Health (11%) Law (11%) Agriculture and Food (10%) Crime and Law Enforcement (9%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Kennedy recently introduced the following legislation:

• H.R. 4848 (105th): Free Annual Credit Report Act of 1998
• H.R. 4686 (105th): Long-Term Care Patient Protection Act of 1998
• H.R. 3661 (105th): Persian Gulf War Veterans’ Health and Medical Research Act of 1998
• H.R. 3660 (105th): National Research Investment Act of 1998
• H.R. 3439 (105th): Credit Union Community Reinvestment Act
• H.R. 3060 (105th): Rent-To-Own Reform Act of 1997
• H.Res. 321 (105th): Collegiate Initiative To Reduce Binge Drinking

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1987 to Dec 1998, Kennedy missed 263 of 6,424 roll call votes, which is 4.1%. This is worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1998. 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
• 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
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills