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Rep. Rod Blum

Former Representative for Iowa’s 1st District

pronounced rod // blum

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Blum was the representative for Iowa’s 1st congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 2015 to 2018.

Alleged misconduct & resolution

In 2018, Blum was accused of omitting required information from financial disclosure reports; permitting the use of official House resources for a private business in which he had a financial interest and the use of unfair or deceptive trade practices. In July 2018, the Office of Congressional Ethics referred the allegations to the House Committee on Ethics for further investigation. In December 2018, the House Committee on Ethics published the Office of Congressional Ethics Report and Findings and the member's response. In January 2019, the Committee ceased investigating as its juridiction ended with the 115th Congress.

Jul. 19, 2018 Office of Congressional Ethics referred the allegations to the House Committee on Ethics for further investigation.
Nov. 6, 2018 Blum lost the election.
Dec. 17, 2018 Office of Congressional Ethics published the Office of Congressional Ethics Report and Findings and the member's response.
Jan. 2, 2019 House Committee on Ethics ceased investigating on January 3, 2019 because Blum lost his election and the committee's jurisdiction ended.
Photo of Rep. Rod Blum [R-IA1, 2015-2018]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2018 Report Card for Blum.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Blum is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2018 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 Blum sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2013 to Dec 21, 2018. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Enacted Legislation

Blum was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:

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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

Blum sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (31%) Taxation (19%) Health (12%) Native Americans (12%) Commerce (12%) Crime and Law Enforcement (12%)

Recent Bills

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

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Voting Record

Key Votes

Blum’s Vote Vote Description
Nay S. 139: Rapid DNA Act of 2017
Jan 11, 2018. Passed 256/164.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017. The bill would extend so-called "section 702" government surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The bill was originally introduced and passed the Senate in 2017 as the Rapid DNA ...
Yea H.R. 1039: Probation Officer Protection Act of 2017
May 19, 2017. Passed 229/177.
H.R. 1039 amends the federal criminal code to authorize a probation officer to arrest a person, without warrant, if there is probable cause to believe that person forcibly assaulted or obstructed a probation officer while performing their official duties. The bill also would direct the ...
Aye H.J.Res. 43: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule submitted by Secretary of Health and Human Services relating ...
Feb 16, 2017. Passed 230/188.
Joe Biden never got the opportunity to break a single 50-50 Senate tie in eight years as vice president. Mike Pence has already broken two. One from last month has since become law: a measure allowing states to withhold federal Planned Parenthood funding. (The other ...
No H.R. 3038: Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015, Part II
Jul 15, 2015. Passed 312/119.
Aye H.R. 2146: Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act
Jun 18, 2015. Passed 218/208.
This vote made H.R. 2146 the vehicle for passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal currently being negotiated. H.R. 2146 was originally introduced as a bill to address issues with retirement funds of federal law enforcement officers and firefighters. ...
Nay H.R. 2048: Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015
May 13, 2015. Passed 338/88.
The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of ...

Missed Votes

From Jan 2015 to Dec 2018, Blum missed 84 of 2,535 roll call votes, which is 3.3%. This is on par with the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2018. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: