Zimmer was the representative for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1991 to 1996.
Alleged misconduct & resolution
In 1996, based on an accusation made by Torricelli, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated Zimmer for using a congressional fax machine for a non-official purpose, specifically to send a press release entitled "Zimmer Wallops Torricelli in N.J. Congressional Softball Tourney" which was alleged to be a personal attack and therefore a violation of usage rules. The complaint was returned on Jan. 5, 1996 for failing to meet standards of committee procedures and subsequently rel-submitted. The complaint was dismissed on March 29, 1996 for lack of merit. On Nov. 5, 1996, Zimmer lost his bid for a New Jersey Senate seat to Torricelli.
![Photo of Rep. Richard Zimmer [R-NJ12, 1991-1996]](/static/legislator-photos/412001-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Zimmer is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1996 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 Zimmer sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Zimmer was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 3456 (104th): Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996
- H.R. 2137 (104th): Megan’s Law
- H.R. 2035 (102nd): To authorize the addition of 15 acres to Morristown National Historical Park.
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
Zimmer sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (20%) Economics and Public Finance (15%) Environmental Protection (14%) Taxation (14%) Crime and Law Enforcement (11%) Agriculture and Food (9%) Law (9%) Science, Technology, Communications (8%)
Recent Bills
Some of Zimmer’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 3974 (104th): To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to prohibit the provision ...
- H.R. 3781 (104th): To require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to update its report ...
- H.R. 3456 (104th): Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996
- H.R. 3319 (104th): To require that the United States promptly sue for recovery of costs ...
- H.R. 3257 (104th): To develop model curricula appropriate for elementary and secondary students.
- H.Res. 361 (104th): Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to prohibit foreign travel ...
- H.R. 2960 (104th): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that amounts ...
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1991 to Sep 1996, Zimmer missed 53 of 3,394 roll call votes, which is 1.6%. This is better than the median of 2.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Sep 1996. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
