Fincher was the representative for Tennessee’s 8th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 2011 to 2016.
![Photo of Rep. Stephen Fincher [R-TN8, 2011-2016]](/static/legislator-photos/412479-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2016 Report Card for Fincher.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Fincher is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2016 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 Fincher sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 2011 to Dec 30, 2016. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Fincher was the primary sponsor of 6 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 4252 (114th): Foreclosure Relief and Extension for Servicemembers Act of 2015
- H.R. 597 (114th): Export-Import Bank Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2015
- H.R. 3611 (114th): Export-Import Bank Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2015
- H.R. 2064 (114th): Improving Access to Capital for Emerging Growth Companies Act
- H.R. 3606 (112th): Jumpstart Our Business Startups
- H.R. 1264 (112th): To designate the property between the United States Federal Courthouse and the Ed Jones Building located at 109 South Highland Avenue in Jackson, Tennessee, as the “M.D. ...
Does 6 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
Fincher sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Finance and Financial Sector (30%) Taxation (13%) Armed Forces and National Security (13%) Housing and Community Development (13%) Health (10%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (7%) Emergency Management (7%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%)
Recent Bills
Some of Fincher’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 6527 (114th): SADD Act of 2016
- H.R. 4285 (114th): Prevent Terrorism from Entering our Prisons Act of 2015
- H.R. 4252 (114th): Foreclosure Relief and Extension for Servicemembers Act of 2015
- H.R. 4189 (114th): Stop Funding for Terrorism Act
- H.Res. 450 (114th): Providing for the consideration of the bill (H.R. 597) to reauthorize the ...
- H.R. 3611 (114th): Export-Import Bank Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2015
- H.R. 2998 (114th): CLAIM Act
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2011 to Dec 2016, Fincher missed 441 of 4,135 roll call votes, which is 10.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2016. 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
