Juan Vargas, Representative for California's 51st Congressional District

Vargas is the representative for California’s 51^st congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Vargas is next up for reelection in 2020.

Rep. Juan Vargas is currently voting by proxy under new rules in effect during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since May 26, 2020, Rep. William Keating [D-MA9] will be casting Vargas’s vote. Under the rules for proxy voting, representatives may designate another representative as their proxy and must give their proxy exact instructions on how to vote.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 Report Card for Vargas.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Vargas 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 Vargas has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to May 26, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Human Rights Campaign: 100% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 100% League of Conservation Voters: 91% American Civil Liberties Union: 89% NIAC Action: B The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: B United States Chamber of Commerce: 55% The Club for Growth: 24% FreedomWorks: 20% NumbersUSA: 12% Americans for Prosperity: 10%

Committee Membership

Juan Vargas sits on the following committees:

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Vargas sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Immigration (20%) Environmental Protection (17%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (17%) Health (13%) Housing and Community Development (10%) Finance and Financial Sector (10%) Armed Forces and National Security (7%) Native Americans (7%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Vargas voted Nay

H.R. 4378: Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020, and Health Extenders Act of 2019

Passed 301/123 on Sep 19, 2019.

Vargas voted Nay

H.R. 2825: DHS Authorization Act of 2017

Passed 386/41 on Jul 20, 2017.

H.R. 2825 authorizes the activities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and provides necessary oversight and guidance to the Department to ensure that it ...

Vargas voted No

S. 612: A bill to designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 1300 Victoria Street in Laredo, ...

Passed 360/61 on Dec 8, 2016.

Vargas voted Yea

H.R. 5711: To prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from authorizing certain transactions by a U.S. financial institution in connection ...

Passed 243/174 on Nov 17, 2016.

Vargas voted Yea

H.R. 5461: Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act

Passed 282/143 on Sep 21, 2016.

Vargas voted Yea

H.R. 4992: United States Financial System Protection Act of 2016

Passed 246/181 on Jul 14, 2016.

Vargas voted Aye

H.R. 3460: To suspend until January 21, 2017, the authority of the President to waive, suspend, reduce, provide relief from, ...

Passed 247/186 on Sep 11, 2015.

Vargas voted No

H.R. 2146: Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act

Passed 218/208 on Jun 18, 2015.

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. ...

Vargas voted Yea

H.R. 2048: Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015

Passed 338/88 on May 13, 2015.

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 ...

Vargas voted Nay

H.R. 83 (113th): Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015

Passed 219/206 on Dec 11, 2014.

This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 [pdf], which was approved by the House on December ...

Vargas voted Aye

H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015

Passed 319/108 on Sep 17, 2014.

Vargas voted No

H.R. 3309 (113th): Innovation Act

Passed 325/91 on Dec 5, 2013.

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to May 2020, Vargas missed 107 of 4,552 roll call votes, which is 2.4%. This is on par with the median of 2.2% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
2013 Jan-Mar	89	2	2.2%	55^th
2013 Apr-Jun	215	2	0.9%	36^th
2013 Jul-Sep	200	1	0.5%	25^th
2013 Oct-Dec	137	13	9.5%	90^th
2014 Jan-Mar	148	3	2.0%	51^st
2014 Apr-Jun	219	1	0.5%	26^th
2014 Jul-Sep	147	1	0.7%	27^th
2014 Nov-Dec	49	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Jan-Mar	144	1	0.7%	25^th
2015 Apr-Jun	244	5	2.0%	66^th
2015 Jul-Sep	139	1	0.7%	32^nd
2015 Oct-Dec	177	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Jan-Mar	137	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Apr-Jun	204	7	3.4%	65^th
2016 Jul-Sep	232	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Nov-Dec	48	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	208	2	1.0%	36^th
2017 Apr-Jun	136	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jul-Sep	199	6	3.0%	82^nd
2017 Oct-Dec	167	2	1.2%	41^st
2018 Jan-Mar	129	16	12.4%	94^th
2018 Apr-Jun	184	16	8.7%	88^th
2018 Jul-Sep	102	1	1.0%	41^st
2018 Nov-Dec	85	0	0.0%	0^th
2019 Jan-Mar	136	6	4.4%	79^th
2019 Apr-Jun	294	13	4.4%	82^nd
2019 Jul-Sep	125	0	0.0%	0^th
2019 Oct-Dec	146	8	5.5%	79^th
2020 Jan-Mar	102	0	0.0%	0^th
2020 Apr-May	10	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

Rep. Juan Vargas

Links

Follow GovTrack on social media for more updates:

On GovTrack Insider:

I have an opinion I want to share.

I need help, have a question, or want to schedule a tour.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Recent Bills

Voting Record

Key Votes

Vargas voted Nay

Vargas voted Nay

Vargas voted No

Vargas voted Yea

Vargas voted Yea

Vargas voted Yea

Vargas voted Aye

Vargas voted No

Vargas voted Yea

Vargas voted Nay

Vargas voted Aye

Vargas voted No

Missed Votes

Primary Sources