Rep. Ken Bentsen
Former Representative for Texas’s 25th District
Bentsen was the representative for Texas’s 25th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1995 to 2002.
![Photo of Rep. Ken Bentsen [D-TX25, 1995-2002]](/static/legislator-photos/400550-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Bentsen is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2002 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 Bentsen sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 1997 to Nov 19, 2002. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Bentsen was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 4717 (107th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1199 Pasadena Boulevard in Pasadena, Texas, as the “Jim Fonteno Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 2961 (106th): International Patient Act of 2000
- H.R. 576 (106th): To amend title 4, United States Code, to add the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday to the list of days on which the flag should especially be …
Does 3 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
Bentsen sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (23%) Health (14%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Finance and Financial Sector (14%) Social Welfare (11%) Labor and Employment (8%) Housing and Community Development (8%) Families (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Bentsen recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5696 (107th): Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Funding Reform Act of 2002
- H.R. 5656 (107th): SCHIP Allotment Extension Availability Act of 2002
- H.R. 4717 (107th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at …
- H.R. 3769 (107th): Insider Trading Full Disclosure Act of 2002
- H.R. 3670 (107th): Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers, Farmers, Fishermen, Communities, and Firms Act of …
- H.R. 3623 (107th): Employee Savings Protection Act of 2002
- H.R. 3509 (107th): Retirement Account Protection Act of 2001
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1995 to Nov 2002, Bentsen missed 75 of 4,737 roll call votes, which is 1.6%. This is better than the median of 2.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Nov 2002. 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.
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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
