Russo was the representative for Illinois’s 3rd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1975 to 1992.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Russo is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1992 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 Russo sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1987 to Oct 9, 1992. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Russo was the primary sponsor of 6 bills that were enacted:
- H.J.Res. 606 (101st): Designating February 16, 1991, as “Lithuanian Independence Day”.
- H.J.Res. 149 (101st): Designating February 16, 1990, as “Lithuanian Independence Day”.
- H.R. 3323 (99th): A bill for the relief of Alexander Lockwood.
- H.J.Res. 409 (99th): A joint resolution to direct the President to issue a proclamation designating February 16, 1986, as “Lithuanian Independence Day”.
- H.J.Res. 410 (99th): A joint resolution to designate October 6, 1986, through October 10, 1986, as “National Social Studies Week”.
- H.J.Res. 60 (98th): A joint resolution to direct the President to issue a proclamation designating February 16, 1983, as “Lithuanian Independence Day”.
Does 6 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
Russo sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Taxation (36%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (21%) Crime and Law Enforcement (15%) Labor and Employment (8%) Environmental Protection (5%) International Affairs (5%) Health (5%) Economics and Public Finance (5%)
Recent Bills
Some of Russo’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 5648 (102nd): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to revise the application ...
- H.R. 4952 (102nd): To suspend until January 1, 1995, the duty on TFA and DM-8.
- H.R. 4951 (102nd): To suspend until January 1, 1995, the duty on Calan IR and ...
- H.Res. 389 (102nd): Concerning peace with justice in Ireland.
- H.R. 4324 (102nd): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require continuation coverage ...
- H.Con.Res. 275 (102nd): Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should reduce ...
- H.R. 4083 (102nd): To make permanent the transfer to the Railroad Retirement Account of income ...
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1975 to Oct 1992, Russo missed 817 of 9,472 roll call votes, which is 8.6%. This is worse than the median of 4.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1992. 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.
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
- 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
