Richard Armey, former Representative for Texas's 26th Congressional District

Armey was the representative for Texas’s 26^th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1985 to 2002.

Alleged misconduct & resolution

In 1995, Armey faced an allegation of improper use of congressional stationery. On Jun. 2, 1995, Guitierrez filed a complaint on behalf of the Congressional Accountability Project. Armey admitted to the violation and the complaint was dismissed on June 13, 1995. A public letter to Armey and a press statement were released on June 14, 1995.

Jun. 14, 1995

Another member filed a complaint on behalf of the Congressional Accountability Project on June 2, 1995. Armey admitted to the violation and the complaint was dismissed on June 13, 1995. A public letter to Armey and a press statement were released on June 14, 1995.

Photo of Rep. Richard Armey [R-TX26, 1985-2002]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Armey is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2002 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 Armey sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 1997 to Nov 19, 2002. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Armey was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 10 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

Armey sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (30%) Crime and Law Enforcement (12%) International Affairs (11%) Commerce (10%) Economics and Public Finance (9%) Finance and Financial Sector (9%) Families (9%) Social Welfare (9%)

Recent Bills

Some of Armey’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1985 to Nov 2002, Armey missed 227 of 9,524 roll call votes, which is 2.4%. This is on par with the median of 2.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Nov 2002. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1985 Jan-Mar	36	2	5.6%	33^rd
1985 Apr-Jun	154	4	2.6%	29^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	1	0.7%	13^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	0	0.0%	0^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	2	1.6%	28^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	3	1.5%	33^rd
1986 Oct-Oct	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	1	2.6%	42^nd
1987 Apr-Jun	187	9	4.8%	59^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	3	3.2%	55^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	6	3.6%	27^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	8	5.3%	61^st
1988 Oct-Oct	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	3	2.9%	44^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	1	0.8%	18^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	6	5.0%	62^nd
1990 Jan-Mar	60	1	1.7%	38^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	5	3.3%	59^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	1	0.7%	23^rd
1991 Jan-Mar	62	3	4.8%	68^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	3	2.2%	40^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	2	2.5%	37^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	9	13.6%	91^st
1992 Apr-Jun	185	4	2.2%	39^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	2	1.0%	31^st
1992 Oct-Oct	41	3	7.3%	67^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	7	5.5%	79^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	12	6.3%	77^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	1	0.6%	25^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	3	3.2%	57^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	1	0.5%	18^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	3	2.1%	43^rd
1994 Oct-Nov	51	1	2.0%	49^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	5	1.8%	62^nd
1995 Apr-Jun	189	4	2.1%	54^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	4	1.7%	51^st
1995 Oct-Dec	185	4	2.2%	53^rd
1996 Jan-Mar	110	6	5.5%	80^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	3	1.6%	40^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	1	0.6%	21^st
1997 Jan-Mar	71	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Apr-Jun	174	4	2.3%	58^th
1997 Jul-Sep	232	9	3.9%	75^th
1997 Oct-Nov	163	5	3.1%	58^th
1998 Jan-Mar	89	3	3.4%	60^th
1998 Apr-Jun	185	8	4.3%	73^rd
1998 Jul-Sep	199	5	2.5%	57^th
1998 Oct-Dec	74	1	1.4%	41^st
1999 Jan-Mar	77	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Apr-Jun	184	2	1.1%	30^th
1999 Jul-Sep	204	5	2.5%	63^rd
1999 Oct-Nov	146	5	3.4%	60^th
2000 Jan-Mar	95	4	4.2%	57^th
2000 Apr-Jun	277	3	1.1%	28^th
2000 Jul-Sep	130	3	2.3%	55^th
2000 Oct-Dec	101	7	6.9%	49^th
2001 Jan-Mar	75	2	2.7%	50^th
2001 Apr-Jun	135	4	3.0%	58^th
2001 Jul-Sep	149	1	0.7%	21^st
2001 Oct-Dec	153	2	1.3%	34^th
2002 Jan-Mar	79	4	5.1%	67^th
2002 Apr-Jun	203	3	1.5%	28^th
2002 Jul-Sep	141	4	2.8%	47^th
2002 Oct-Nov	61	6	9.8%	77^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
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
Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. Richard Armey

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