Kastenmeier was the representative for Wisconsin’s 2nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1959 to 1990.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Kastenmeier is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1990 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 Kastenmeier sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1985 to Oct 27, 1990. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Kastenmeier was the primary sponsor of 47 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 3045 (101st): Copyright Remedy Clarification Act
- H.R. 1622 (101st): Copyright Fees and Technical Amendments Act of 1989
- H.R. 3046 (101st): Copyright Royalty Tribunal Reform and Miscellaneous Pay Act of 1989
- H.R. 4807 (100th): Judicial Improvements and Access to Justice Act
- H.R. 4972 (100th): A bill to authorize appropriations for the Patent and Trademark Office in the Department of Commerce, and for other purposes.
- H.J.Res. 446 (100th): A joint resolution designating October 30 through November 5, 1988, as “National Jukebox Week”.
- H.R. 4262 (100th): Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988
Does 47 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
Kastenmeier sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Law (27%) Commerce (25%) Economics and Public Finance (10%) Crime and Law Enforcement (10%) Government Operations and Politics (9%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (7%) Agriculture and Food (6%) International Affairs (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Kastenmeier recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5598 (101st): Patent Competitiveness and Technological Innovation Act of 1990
- H.R. 5498 (101st): Copyright Amendments Act of 1990
- H.R. 5381 (101st): Federal Courts Study Committee Implementation Act of 1990
- H.R. 4737 (101st): Habeas Corpus Revision Act of 1990
- H.R. 4366 (101st): Copyright and Mask Work Dispute Settlement Authority Act of 1990
- H.R. 4340 (101st): Telephone Privacy Act of 1990
- H.R. 4263 (101st): To amend section 107 of title 17, United States Code, relating to …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1959 to Oct 1990, Kastenmeier missed 288 of 12,231 roll call votes, which is 2.4%. This is better than the median of 4.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1990. 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
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
