Velázquez is the representative for New York’s 7th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. She has served since Jan 3, 2013. Velázquez is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.
She was previously the representative for New York’s 12th congressional district as a Democrat from 1993 to 2012.
![Photo of Rep. Nydia Velázquez [D-NY7]](/static/legislator-photos/400416-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 Report Card for Velázquez.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Velázquez 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 Velázquez has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Mar 2, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Enacted Legislation
Velázquez was the primary sponsor of 16 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 3867 (116th): Violence Against Women Veterans Act
- H.R. 4463 (115th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 6 Doyers Street in New York, New York, as the “Mabel Lee Memorial Post Office”.
- H.R. 5236 (115th): Main Street Employee Ownership Act of 2018
- H.R. 5178 (115th): Puerto Rico Small Business Contracting Assistance Act of 2018
- H.R. 3294 (115th): HUBZone Unification and Business Stability Act of 2017
- H.R. 1366 (115th): U.S. Territories Investor Protection Act of 2017
- H.R. 1915 (115th): To amend the Small Business Act to provide the Administrator of the Small Business Administration authority to increase amount for general business loans, and for other purposes.
Does 16 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
Velázquez sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Commerce (30%) Finance and Financial Sector (14%) Health (12%) Housing and Community Development (10%) Armed Forces and National Security (9%) Education (9%) Government Operations and Politics (9%) Transportation and Public Works (8%)
Recent Bills
Some of Velázquez’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.Con.Res. 18: Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the importance of including small business concerns, ...
- H.R. 1317: To provide compensation to certain residents of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, ...
- H.R. 1268: To require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award targeted grants ...
- H.R. 1192: PRRADA
- H.R. 1191: For the relief of Ravidath Lawrence Ragbir.
- H.R. 1188: To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require issuers to disclose ...
- H.R. 435: Excluding Pandemic Unemployment Compensation from Income Act
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1993 to Mar 2021, Velázquez missed 724 of 18,181 roll call votes, which is 4.0%. This is worse than the median of 2.0% 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.
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
- Office of Nydia Velázquez for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills