Burton was the representative for California’s 5th congressional district and was a Democrat. She served from 1983 to 1987.
![Photo of Rep. Sala Burton [D-CA5, 1983-1987]](/static/legislator-photos/402100-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Burton is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1986 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 Burton sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 1981 to Oct 18, 1986. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Burton was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 1343 (99th): A bill to authorize the use of funds from rental of floating drydock and other marine equipment to support the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco, California.
- H.J.Res. 704 (99th): A joint resolution to authorize and request the President to proclaim the week of November 23, 1986, to November 30, 1986, as “American Indian Week”.
Does 2 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
Burton sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Immigration (36%) Private Legislation (34%) Health (7%) Social Welfare (7%) Government Operations and Politics (5%) Arts, Culture, Religion (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Burton recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.J.Res. 704 (99th): A joint resolution to authorize and request the President to proclaim the …
- H.Res. 521 (99th): A resolution waiving certain points of order against consideration of the bill …
- H.Res. 516 (99th): A resolution waiving certain points of order against consideration of the bill …
- H.Res. 483 (99th): A resolution providing for the consideration of the bill (H. R. 4259) …
- H.Res. 458 (99th): A resolution waiving certain points of order against the conference report on …
- H.Res. 429 (99th): A resolution providing for the consideration of the bill (H.R. 3302) to …
- H.R. 4446 (99th): A bill for the relief of Henry David Brimmer.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jun 1983 to Jan 1987, Burton missed 266 of 1,594 roll call votes, which is 16.7%. This is much worse than the median of 5.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jan 1987. 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
- 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
