Hall was the representative for Texas’s 4th congressional district and was most recently a Republican (2004-2014) and previously a Democrat (1981-2004). He served from 1981 to 2014.
![Photo of Rep. Ralph Hall [R-TX4, 1981-2014]](/static/legislator-photos/400165-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2014 Report Card for Hall.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Hall is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2014 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 Hall sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2009 to Dec 11, 2014. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Hall was the primary sponsor of 8 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 4032 (113th): North Texas Invasive Species Barrier Act of 2014
- H.R. 2431 (113th): National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act of 2014
- H.R. 185 (113th): To designate the United States courthouse located at 101 East Pecan Street in Sherman, Texas, as the “Paul Brown United States Courthouse”.
- H.R. 4158 (112th): To confirm full ownership rights for certain United States astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts’ space missions.
- H.R. 970 (112th): Federal Aviation Research and Development Reauthorization Act of 2011
- H.R. 5136 (109th): National Integrated Drought Information System Act of 2006
- H.R. 5606 (109th): To designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 221 and 211 West Ferguson Street in Tyler, Texas, as the “William M. Steger Federal Building …
Does 8 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
Hall sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (31%) Science, Technology, Communications (19%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (12%) Water Resources Development (12%) Government Operations and Politics (12%) Energy (8%) Transportation and Public Works (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Hall recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5603 (113th): To provide for the conveyance of the Lake Fannin Tract of the …
- H.R. 5604 (113th): To direct the Secretary of the Army to revise the management plan …
- H.R. 4625 (113th): Medicare Home Health Rebasing Relief and Reassessment Act
- H.R. 4032 (113th): North Texas Invasive Species Barrier Act of 2014
- H.R. 3234 (113th): Pay Accountability Act
- H.R. 2431 (113th): National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act of 2014
- H.R. 1076 (113th): To amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to provide for …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1981 to Dec 2014, Hall missed 552 of 20,018 roll call votes, which is 2.8%. This is on par with the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2014. 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.
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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
