Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin

Former Representative for California’s 42^nd District

Van Deerlin was the representative for California’s 42^nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1975 to 1980.

He was previously the representative for California’s 41^st congressional district as a Democrat from 1973 to 1974; and the representative for California’s 37^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1963 to 1972.

Bioguide

Photo of Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin [D-CA42, 1975-1980]

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Van Deerlin 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 Van Deerlin sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 14, 1975 to Dec 13, 1980. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Van Deerlin was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:

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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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Van Deerlin sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (26%) Private Legislation (24%) Science, Technology, Communications (14%) Finance and Financial Sector (12%) Labor and Employment (8%) Environmental Protection (6%) Economics and Public Finance (6%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (4%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Van Deerlin recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1963 to Dec 1980, Van Deerlin missed 881 of 7,362 roll call votes, which is 12.0%. 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
1963 Jan-Mar	9	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jul-Sep	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Oct-Dec	50	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Apr-Jun	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Oct-Oct	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	28	1	3.6%	30^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	6	11.3%	60^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	13	13.3%	77^th
1965 Oct-Oct	22	1	4.5%	22^nd
1966 Jan-Mar	30	1	3.3%	24^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	4	7.8%	35^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	39	54.2%	96^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	12	30.0%	65^th
1967 Jan-Mar	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Apr-Jun	57	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	3	5.1%	68^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	1	1.0%	25^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	1	1.3%	24^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	6	6.6%	69^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	3	10.7%	53^rd
1969 Jul-Sep	45	2	4.4%	25^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	13	14.8%	65^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	7	20.0%	76^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	10	13.5%	36^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	20	26.3%	80^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	8	9.9%	31^st
1971 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	3	3.3%	9^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	46	62.2%	99^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	11	8.2%	38^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	15	23.4%	87^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	15	13.2%	53^rd
1972 Jul-Sep	101	10	9.9%	53^rd
1972 Oct-Oct	50	16	32.0%	80^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	5	13.9%	68^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	18	9.4%	59^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	50	27.5%	92^nd
1974 Jan-Mar	79	11	13.9%	72^nd
1974 Apr-Jun	170	16	9.4%	48^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	22	14.9%	88^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	4	2.8%	15^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	3	4.4%	38^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	9	4.5%	40^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	31	20.1%	93^rd
1975 Oct-Dec	191	27	14.1%	87^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	12	11.3%	72^nd
1976 Apr-Jun	267	24	9.0%	49^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	21	7.5%	54^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	5	5.0%	46^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	66	24.2%	95^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	5	2.5%	25^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	31	23.0%	95^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	23	15.3%	80^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	38	12.7%	69^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	20	6.5%	43^rd
1978 Oct-Oct	76	6	7.9%	61^st
1979 Jan-Mar	63	4	6.3%	58^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	12	5.4%	36^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	9	4.5%	36^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	61	32.1%	94^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	16	10.8%	59^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	44	22.3%	88^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	6	3.1%	24^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	15	22.4%	72^nd

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
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills