Conte was the representative for Massachusetts’s 1st congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1959 to 1991.
![Photo of Rep. Silvio Conte [R-MA1, 1959-1991]](/static/legislator-photos/402833-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Conte is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1990 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 Conte sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1985 to Oct 27, 1990. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Conte was the primary sponsor of 44 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 794 (102nd): Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge Act
- H.R. 3977 (101st): Antarctic Protection Act of 1990
- H.J.Res. 669 (101st): To salute and congratulate the people of Poland as they commemorate the two-hundreth anniversary of the adoption of the Polish Constitution on May 3, 1991.
- H.J.Res. 545 (101st): Providing for the reappointment of Anne L. Armstrong as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
- H.J.Res. 358 (101st): Providing for the reappointment of Jeannine Smith Clark as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
- H.J.Res. 357 (101st): Providing for the reappointment of Samuel C. Johnson as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
- H.R. 2587 (101st): North American Wetlands Conservation Act
Does 44 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
Conte sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (26%) Taxation (19%) Social Welfare (13%) Health (9%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (8%) Environmental Protection (8%) Labor and Employment (8%) Commerce (8%)
Recent Bills
Some of Conte’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 795 (102nd): Postsecondary Recognition, Innovation, Deregulation, and Excellence Act of 1991
- H.R. 794 (102nd): Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge Act
- H.R. 679 (102nd): Deposit Insurance Limitation Act of 1990
- H.R. 538 (102nd): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify the exclusion ...
- H.R. 130 (102nd): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow employers a ...
- H.R. 293 (102nd): Federal Custodial Responsibility Protection Act of 1991
- H.Res. 10 (102nd): Expressing the House of Representatives’ opposition to an imposition of an import ...
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1959 to Feb 1991, Conte missed 494 of 12,254 roll call votes, which is 4.0%. This is on par with the median of 4.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Feb 1991. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.
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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
