Rep. Ken Buck
Representative for Colorado’s 4th District
pronounced ken // buk
![Photo of Rep. Ken Buck [R-CO4]](/static/legislator-photos/412619-200px.jpeg)
Our work to hold Congress accountable only matters if elections are decided by counting votes. President Trump, his senior government advisors, and Republican legislators collaborated to have the 2020 presidential election decided by themselves rather than by voters. Their attempts to suppress entire state-certified vote counts without adjudication in the courts and using a disinformation campaign of lies and conspiracy theories was a months-long, multifarious attempted coup.
Buck was among the Republican legislators who participated in the attempted coup. Shortly after the election, Buck joined a case before the Supreme Court calling for all the votes for president in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — states that were narrowly won by Democrats — to be discarded, in order to change the outcome of the election, based on lies and a preposterous legal argument which the Supreme Court rejected. (Following the rejection of several related cases before the Supreme Court, another legislator who joined the case called for violence.) The January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol, led on the front lines by militant white supremacy groups, attempted to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office by disrupting Congress’s count of electors. President Trump was indicted in 2023 for soliciting the Vice President to subvert Congress’s certification of the election and his role in the fraudulent slates of electors and the insurrection at the Capitol.
Earmarks
Buck did not request any earmarks for fiscal year 2024.
Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. More about FY2024 earmark requests from Demand Progress Education Fund »
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2022 Report Card for Buck.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Buck 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 ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Buck has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Sep 30, 2023. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Ken Buck sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Buck was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 2566 (117th): No TikTok on Government Devices Act
- H.R. 1330 (116th): Amache Study Act
- H.R. 6779 (115th): Using Data to Prevent Opioid Diversion Act of 2018
- H.R. 5844 (115th): Amache Study Act
Does 4 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
Buck sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Crime and Law Enforcement (30%) Government Operations and Politics (16%) International Affairs (14%) Taxation (11%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (9%) Commerce (7%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Immigration (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Buck recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 4370: PREVAIL Act
- H.R. 4213: Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program Improvement Act of 2023
- H.R. 4151: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require certain contract terms …
- H.R. 4105: Stop Pills That Kill Act
- H.R. 3954: Water and Agriculture Tax Reform Act of 2023
- H.R. 3406: Stop TSP ESG Act
- H.Con.Res. 40: Expressing support for local law enforcement officers and condemning efforts to defund or …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2015 to Sep 2023, Buck missed 287 of 5,000 roll call votes, which is 5.7%. This is much worse than the median of 1.7% 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, 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
