Rep. Kevin McCarthy

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 Report Card for McCarthy.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

McCarthy 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 McCarthy has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to May 22, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Enacted Legislation

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

• H.R. 2695: To rename the Success Dam in Tulare County, California, as the Richard L. Schafer Dam.
• H.R. 5509 (115th): Innovations in Mentoring, Training, and Apprenticeships Act
• H.R. 6888: Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018
• H.R. 1988 (115th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1730 18th Street in Bakersfield, California, as the “Merle Haggard Post Office Building”.
• H.R. 1989: VET TEC Act
• H.R. 39 (115th): TALENT Act of 2017
• H.R. 6007 (114th): To amend title 49, United States Code, to include consideration of certain impacts on commercial space launch and reentry activities in a navigable airspace analysis, and for ...

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

McCarthy sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (30%) Armed Forces and National Security (15%) International Affairs (15%) Science, Technology, Communications (10%) Health (10%) Water Resources Development (10%) Emergency Management (10%)

Recent Bills

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

• H.R. 6177: Members of Congress Tax Liability and Garnishment Accountability Act of 2020
• H.R. 5904: Clergy Act of 2020
• H.R. 5766: VET TEC Expansion Act
• H.Res. 791: Condemning the actions of the Government of Iran and supporting the protesters in ...
• H.Res. 770: Disapproving the manner in which Chairman Adam B. Schiff of the Permanent Select ...
• H.Res. 603: Raising a question of the privileges of the House.
• H.Res. 590: Raising a question of the privileges of the House.

View All » | View Cosponsors »

As House Minority Leader, McCarthy may be focused on his responsibilities other than introducing legislation, such as setting the chamber’s agenda, uniting his party, and brokering deals.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to May 2020, McCarthy missed 177 of 9,686 roll call votes, which is 1.8%. 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...

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