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Rep. Ruben Gallego

Representative for Arizona’s 3rd District

pronounced ROO-bun // gah-YEH-goh

Gallego is the representative for Arizona’s 3rd congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2023. Gallego is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 43 years old.

He was previously the representative for Arizona’s 7th congressional district as a Democrat from 2015 to 2022.

Photo of Rep. Ruben Gallego [D-AZ3]

Earmarks

Gallego proposed $31 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:

  • $4 million to City of Tucson for “South 10th Avenue Affordable and Mixed-Income Housing Development – Pre-Development Infrastructure Project”
  • $4 million to Area Agency on Aging, Region One, Incorporated for “The Justa Center Building Construction”
  • $2.7 million to Town of Guadalupe for “Roadway and Pedestrian Safety Improvements”

These are earmark requests which may or may not survive the legislative process to becoming law. Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Across representatives who requested earmarks, the median total amount requested for this fiscal year was $39 million.

Earmarks are federal expenditures, tax benefits, or tariff benefits requested by a legislator for a specific entity. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. All earmark requests in the House of Representatives are published online for the public to review. We don’t have earmark requests for senators. The fiscal year begins on October 1 of the prior calendar year. Source: Appropriations.house.gov. Background: Earmark Disclosure Rules in the House

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Gallego.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Gallego is shown as a purple triangle in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives 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 Gallego has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Sep 26, 2023. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Ruben Gallego sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Gallego was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:

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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

Gallego sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Native Americans (28%) Education (23%) Armed Forces and National Security (15%) Immigration (8%) Health (8%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (6%) Government Operations and Politics (6%) Commerce (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Gallego recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Gallego voted Yea

Passed 289/133 on May 25, 2023.

Gallego voted Yea

Gallego voted Yea

Passed 327/85 on Dec 21, 2020.

This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, a major government funding bill, which also included economic stimulus provisions due …

Gallego voted Yea

Gallego voted Yea

Failed 230/162 on Dec 20, 2018.

Gallego voted Nay

Passed 377/34 on Jun 23, 2017.

H.R. 2842 connects low-income Americans looking for work with employers looking to fill job openings, including through apprenticeships and other forms of on-the-job training. Specifically, …

Gallego voted No

Passed 416/7 on Mar 22, 2017.

Health care is one of the most contentious and partisan issues on Capitol Hill, but a bill intended to increase competition in the health insurance …

Gallego voted No

Passed 360/61 on Dec 8, 2016.

The WIIN (Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation) Act was a 277-page bill dealing with federal water policies, particularly for drought-stricken areas. It’s so complex …

Gallego voted Yea

Passed 338/88 on May 13, 2015.

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 …

Missed Votes

From Jan 2015 to Sep 2023, Gallego missed 196 of 4,942 roll call votes, which is 4.0%. This is much worse than the median of 1.8% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. 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.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

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