DeLay was the representative for Texas’s 22nd congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1985 to 2006.
Misconduct/alleged misconduct
On Oct. 6, 2004, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated DeLay for solicitation and receipt of campaign contributions in return for legislative assistance, use of corporate political contributions in violation of state law, and improper use of official resources for political purposes. They resolved the first and third allegations by public letter and the second allegation was deferred due to astate grand jury investigation. In 2005, he was convicted of conspiring to influence Texas legislative races via a PAC using illegal corporate contributions. In 2013, his conviction overturned.
On Oct. 4, 2004, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated DeLay for improperly linking the personal interest of a member with an effort to achieve a legislative goal and issued a report finding DeLay's behavior inappropriate.
| Oct. 4, 2004 | House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct issued a report finding DeLay's behavior inappropriate |
In 1997, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated DeLay for improperly linking campaign contributions to official actions and improper political favors for DeLay’s brother, a registered lobbyist, and dismissed complaint. On Nov. 11, 1997, a private letter was sent to DeLay and a press statement released.
| Nov. 7, 1997 | House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct dismissed complaint; private letter sent to DeLay; press statement released |
![Photo of Rep. Thomas “Tom” DeLay [R-TX22, 1985-2006]](/static/legislator-photos/400104-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
DeLay is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2006 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 DeLay sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2001 to Dec 8, 2006. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
DeLay was the primary sponsor of 8 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 5403 (109th): Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Foster Children Act of 2006
- H.R. 3045 (109th): Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
- H.R. 4842 (108th): United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
- H.R. 4759 (108th): United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
- H.J.Res. 80 (108th): Appointing the day for the convening of the second session of the One Hundred Eighth Congress.
- H.R. 2738 (108th): United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
- H.R. 2739 (108th): United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
Does 8 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
DeLay sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (32%) Law (15%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (11%) International Affairs (11%) Economics and Public Finance (10%) Families (7%) Commerce (7%) Social Welfare (7%)
Recent Bills
Some of DeLay’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 5403 (109th): Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Foster Children Act of 2006
- H.Res. 445 (109th): Electing Members to certain standing committees of the House of Representatives.
- H.Res. 422 (109th): Expressing the profound sorrow of the House of Representatives on the death ...
- H.Con.Res. 225 (109th): Providing for an adjournment or recess of the two Houses.
- H.Res. 364 (109th): Commending the continuing improvement in relations between the United States and the ...
- H.R. 3129 (109th): Foster Child Protection and Child Sexual Predator Sentencing Act of 2005
- H.Con.Res. 198 (109th): Providing for an adjournment or recess of the two Houses.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1985 to Jun 2006, DeLay missed 522 of 11,666 roll call votes, which is 4.5%. This is worse than the median of 2.9% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jun 2006. 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
