Paul was the representative for Texas’s 14th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1997 to 2012.
He was previously the representative for Texas’s 22nd congressional district as a Republican from 1979 to 1984; and the representative for Texas’s 22nd congressional district as a Republican from 1975 to 1976.
![Photo of Rep. Ronald “Ron” Paul [R-TX14, 1997-2012]](/static/legislator-photos/400311-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Paul is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2013 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 Paul sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2007 to Jan 1, 2013. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Paul was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:
Does 1 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
Paul sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Taxation (36%) Health (15%) Government Operations and Politics (14%) Finance and Financial Sector (12%) Social Welfare (7%) Crime and Law Enforcement (6%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (5%) Transportation and Public Works (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Paul recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 6342 (112th): Compassionate Freedom of Choice Act of 2012
- H.R. 5993 (112th): Syria Non-Intervention Act of 2012
- H.R. 5628 (112th): To extend the temporary suspension of duty on mixtures or coprecipitates of …
- H.R. 5629 (112th): To extend the temporary suspension of duty on cerium sulfide pigments.
- H.R. 5627 (112th): To extend the temporary suspension of duty on lutetium oxide.
- H.R. 3785 (112th): To repeal section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal …
- H.R. 3602 (112th): Spouse Equity Election Clarification Amendment Act of 2011
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Apr 1976 to Jan 2013, Paul missed 1,886 of 14,497 roll call votes, which is 13.0%. This is much worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jan 2013. 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
