Lester Wolff, former Representative for New York's 6th Congressional District

Wolff was the representative for New York’s 6^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1973 to 1980.

He was previously the representative for New York’s 3^rd congressional district as a Democrat from 1965 to 1972.

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Wolff is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1980 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 Wolff sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 14, 1975 to Dec 13, 1980. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Wolff was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:

H.J.Res. 568 (96th): A joint resolution to authorize and request the President to issue a proclamation designating October 12 through October 19, 1980, as “Italian-American Heritage Week”.

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Does 1 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

Wolff sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Taxation (21%) Armed Forces and National Security (18%) International Affairs (17%) Education (14%) Labor and Employment (12%) Government Operations and Politics (7%) Energy (6%) Housing and Community Development (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Wolff recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1965 to Dec 1980, Wolff missed 829 of 7,131 roll call votes, which is 11.6%. This is worse than the median of 8.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1980. 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...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1965 Jan-Mar	28	1	3.6%	30^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	7	13.2%	65^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	8	8.2%	57^th
1965 Oct-Oct	22	3	13.6%	54^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	2	6.7%	45^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	4	7.8%	35^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	11	15.3%	57^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	17	42.5%	72^nd
1967 Jan-Mar	31	1	3.2%	51^st
1967 Apr-Jun	57	2	3.5%	67^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	11	18.6%	99^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	1	1.0%	25^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	4	4.4%	55^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	3	12.0%	53^rd
1969 Jan-Mar	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	6	21.4%	81^st
1969 Jul-Sep	45	12	26.7%	93^rd
1969 Oct-Dec	88	7	8.0%	33^rd
1970 Jan-Mar	35	5	14.3%	63^rd
1970 Apr-Jun	74	5	6.8%	15^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	10	13.2%	53^rd
1970 Oct-Dec	81	35	43.2%	93^rd
1971 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	12	13.3%	53^rd
1971 Jul-Sep	74	5	6.8%	42^nd
1971 Oct-Dec	134	5	3.7%	19^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	17	26.6%	91^st
1972 Apr-Jun	114	1	0.9%	9^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	11	10.9%	57^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	16	32.0%	80^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	3	8.3%	51^st
1973 Apr-Jun	191	20	10.5%	63^rd
1973 Jul-Sep	131	5	3.8%	39^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	14	7.7%	55^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	14	17.7%	88^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	5	2.9%	15^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	5	3.4%	29^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	22	15.6%	72^nd
1975 Jan-Mar	68	5	7.4%	58^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	19	9.5%	67^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	6	3.9%	35^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	16	8.4%	65^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	13	12.3%	78^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	23	8.6%	47^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	22	7.8%	57^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	2	2.0%	24^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	14	5.1%	37^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	52	26.3%	96^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	87	64.4%	100^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	9	6.0%	40^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	37	12.3%	67^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	35	11.4%	67^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	3	3.9%	34^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	11	5.0%	33^rd
1979 Jul-Sep	198	51	25.8%	94^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	21	11.1%	54^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	17	11.5%	61^st
1980 Apr-Jun	197	44	22.3%	88^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	11	5.7%	36^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	21	31.3%	84^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
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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. Lester Wolff

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