Rep. Phillip Burton

Former Representative for California’s 5^th District

Burton was the representative for California’s 5^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1983 to 1983.

He was previously the representative for California’s 6^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1975 to 1982; and the representative for California’s 5^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1963 to 1974.

Bioguide

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Burton is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1982 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 Burton sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1977 to Dec 21, 1982. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Burton was the primary sponsor of 41 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 41 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

Burton sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Private Legislation (39%) Immigration (27%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (10%) Labor and Employment (6%) Government Operations and Politics (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Burton recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Feb 1964 to Oct 1983, Burton missed 854 of 8,088 roll call votes, which is 10.6%. This is worse than the median of 7.0% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1983. 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
1964 Jan-Mar	15	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	1	25.0%	81^st
1965 Jan-Mar	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	2	3.8%	19^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	4	4.1%	39^th
1965 Oct-Oct	22	1	4.5%	29^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	1	3.3%	25^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	9	17.6%	68^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	3	4.2%	19^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	5	12.5%	43^rd
1967 Jan-Mar	31	2	6.5%	82^nd
1967 Apr-Jun	57	2	3.5%	71^st
1967 Jul-Sep	59	3	5.1%	73^rd
1967 Oct-Dec	98	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	1	2.6%	62^nd
1968 Apr-Jun	79	3	3.8%	67^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	2	8.0%	44^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	7	25.0%	87^th
1969 Jul-Sep	45	2	4.4%	29^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	13	14.8%	68^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	10	28.6%	86^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	11	14.9%	41^st
1970 Jul-Sep	76	0	0.0%	0^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	9	11.1%	36^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	6	6.7%	22^nd
1971 Jul-Sep	74	5	6.8%	47^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	18	13.4%	62^nd
1972 Jan-Mar	64	5	7.8%	42^nd
1972 Apr-Jun	114	18	15.8%	64^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	1	1.0%	8^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	2	4.0%	21^st
1973 Jan-Mar	36	2	5.6%	47^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	3	2.3%	30^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	35	19.2%	87^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	16	20.3%	90^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	24	14.1%	73^rd
1974 Jul-Sep	148	8	5.4%	53^rd
1974 Oct-Dec	141	8	5.7%	31^st
1975 Jan-Mar	68	0	0.0%	0^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	8	4.0%	39^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	19	12.3%	82^nd
1975 Oct-Dec	191	33	17.3%	93^rd
1976 Jan-Mar	106	4	3.8%	41^st
1976 Apr-Jun	267	23	8.6%	51^st
1976 Jul-Sep	281	24	8.5%	65^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	7	100.0%	94^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	10	10.0%	75^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	25	9.2%	66^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	10	5.1%	49^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	25	18.5%	90^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	18	12.0%	78^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	26	8.7%	58^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	40	13.0%	71^st
1978 Oct-Oct	76	17	22.4%	89^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	1	1.6%	32^nd
1979 Apr-Jun	221	25	11.3%	73^rd
1979 Jul-Sep	198	13	6.6%	55^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	25	13.2%	69^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	18	12.2%	68^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	66	33.5%	98^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	19	9.9%	62^nd
1980 Oct-Dec	67	22	32.8%	93^rd
1981 Jan-Mar	15	3	20.0%	84^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	5	5.6%	44^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	22	20.8%	94^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	17	12.0%	74^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	18	37.5%	95^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	8	6.7%	66^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	33	17.1%	89^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	22	22.2%	89^th
1983 Jan-Mar	42	5	11.9%	74^th
1983 Oct-Nov	1	1	100.0%	100^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