Nix was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 2nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1963 to 1978.
He was previously the representative for Pennsylvania’s 4th congressional district as a Democrat from 1957 to 1962.
![Photo of Rep. Robert Nix [D-PA2, 1963-1978]](/static/legislator-photos/408197-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Nix is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1978 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 Nix sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1973 to Oct 15, 1978. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Nix was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 11280 (95th): Civil Service Reform Act
- H.R. 9354 (95th): A bill to amend the act of August 25, 1958, with respect to staff allowances for former Presidents.
- H.R. 4365 (95th): National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act
- H.R. 5884 (94th): An Act to authorize appropriations for carrying out the provisions of the International Economic Policy Act of 1972, as amended, and for other purposes.
Does 4 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
Nix sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (34%) Crime and Law Enforcement (18%) Labor and Employment (12%) Social Welfare (12%) Agriculture and Food (7%) Private Legislation (6%) Health (6%) Commerce (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Nix’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.Res. 1363 (95th): A resolution to provide funds for the investigations and studies to be ...
- H.R. 14125 (95th): A bill to amend chapter 87 of title 5, United States Code, ...
- H.R. 13253 (95th): Benjamin Franklin National Memorial Assistance Act
- H.R. 13036 (95th): A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to establish a ...
- H.R. 12845 (95th): A bill to provide for the employment and compensation of employees of ...
- H.R. 11865 (95th): A bill to provide for the issuance of a special postage stamp ...
- H.R. 11280 (95th): Civil Service Reform Act
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jun 1958 to Oct 1978, Nix missed 1,269 of 6,562 roll call votes, which is 19.3%. This is much worse than the median of 8.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1978. 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.
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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
