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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

Representative for Texas’s 18th District

pronounced SHEE-luh // JAK-sun lee

Jackson Lee is the representative for Texas’s 18th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. She has served since Jan 4, 1995. Jackson Lee is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. She is 73 years old.

Photo of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee [D-TX18]

Misconduct

In July 2021, Jackson Lee was arrested at a protest. In September 2021, the House Committee on Ethics reported that a fine was paid and closed the investigation.

Sep. 28, 2021 House Committee on Ethics reported the arrest and that a fine was paid, and closed the investigation

Earmarks

Jackson Lee proposed $110 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:

  • $20 million to Harris County Flood Control District for “P118-08-00 Conveyance and Detention Improvements”
  • $12 million to Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation for “Fifth Ward Economic Impact Initiative”
  • $12 million to for “Community Economic Engagement Initiative”

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 Jackson Lee.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Jackson Lee 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 Jackson Lee has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Sep 26, 2023. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Sheila Jackson Lee sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Jackson Lee was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 10 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

Jackson Lee sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Crime and Law Enforcement (41%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (14%) Government Operations and Politics (11%) Health (9%) Emergency Management (7%) International Affairs (7%) Armed Forces and National Security (6%) Arts, Culture, Religion (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Jackson Lee recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Jackson Lee voted Yea

Jackson Lee voted Yea

Jackson Lee 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 …

Jackson Lee voted Aye

Jackson Lee voted Yea

Jackson Lee voted Aye

Passed 304/117 on Jun 23, 2011.

The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack …

Missed Votes

From Jan 1995 to Sep 2023, Jackson Lee missed 1,050 of 18,455 roll call votes, which is 5.7%. 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: