Thomas “Tom” DeLay, former Representative for Texas's 22nd Congressional District

DeLay was the representative for Texas’s 22^nd 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.

Oct. 6, 2004	House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct resolved the first and third allegations by public letter; and the second allegation was deferred due to state grand jury investigation.
2005	Convicted of conspiring to influence Texas legislative races via a PAC using illegal corporate contributions.
2013	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]

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. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

DeLay was the primary sponsor of 8 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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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 110^th 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...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1985 Jan-Mar	36	3	8.3%	49^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	7	4.5%	51^st
1985 Jul-Sep	101	4	4.0%	44^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	6	4.1%	57^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	8	13.1%	84^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	4	3.1%	45^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	1	0.5%	9^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	7	11.7%	83^rd
1987 Jan-Mar	39	2	5.1%	59^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	14	7.5%	77^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	3	3.2%	55^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	2	1.2%	12^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	2	4.1%	42^nd
1988 Apr-Jun	161	8	5.0%	63^rd
1988 Jul-Sep	152	5	3.3%	44^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	11	12.4%	84^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	52^nd
1989 Apr-Jun	105	4	3.8%	58^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	10	7.8%	92^nd
1989 Oct-Nov	121	5	4.1%	57^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	3	5.0%	74^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	1	0.7%	19^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	5	2.7%	52^nd
1990 Oct-Oct	143	4	2.8%	52^nd
1991 Jan-Mar	62	3	4.8%	66^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	17	12.2%	96^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	7	8.6%	78^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	3	1.9%	41^st
1992 Jan-Mar	66	1	1.5%	29^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	6	3.2%	55^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	3	1.5%	42^nd
1992 Oct-Oct	41	1	2.4%	48^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	1	0.8%	28^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	3	1.6%	33^rd
1993 Jul-Sep	164	5	3.0%	68^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	2	1.5%	48^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	9	4.1%	74^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	11	7.7%	82^nd
1994 Oct-Nov	51	4	7.8%	87^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	7	2.5%	73^rd
1995 Apr-Jun	189	2	1.1%	32^nd
1995 Jul-Sep	232	3	1.3%	45^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	15	13.6%	95^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	7	3.8%	67^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	2	1.2%	37^th
1997 Jan-Mar	71	1	1.4%	38^th
1997 Apr-Jun	174	7	4.0%	74^th
1997 Jul-Sep	232	4	1.7%	50^th
1997 Oct-Nov	163	2	1.2%	30^th
1998 Jan-Mar	89	4	4.5%	72^nd
1998 Apr-Jun	185	4	2.2%	50^th
1998 Jul-Sep	199	16	8.0%	88^th
1998 Oct-Dec	74	3	4.1%	68^th
1999 Jan-Mar	77	5	6.5%	84^th
1999 Apr-Jun	184	4	2.2%	54^th
1999 Jul-Sep	204	7	3.4%	72^nd
1999 Oct-Nov	146	5	3.4%	61^st
2000 Jan-Mar	95	1	1.1%	22^nd
2000 Apr-Jun	277	27	9.7%	91^st
2000 Jul-Sep	130	1	0.8%	27^th
2000 Oct-Dec	101	9	8.9%	62^nd
2001 Jan-Mar	75	2	2.7%	50^th
2001 Apr-Jun	135	4	3.0%	58^th
2001 Jul-Sep	149	5	3.4%	70^th
2001 Oct-Dec	153	16	10.5%	92^nd
2002 Jan-Mar	79	4	5.1%	69^th
2002 Apr-Jun	203	7	3.4%	56^th
2002 Jul-Sep	141	6	4.3%	64^th
2002 Oct-Nov	61	2	3.3%	55^th
2003 Jan-Mar	94	4	4.3%	71^st
2003 Apr-Jun	239	23	9.6%	93^rd
2003 Jul-Sep	193	15	7.8%	86^th
2003 Oct-Dec	151	20	13.2%	92^nd
2004 Jan-Mar	104	0	0.0%	0^th
2004 Apr-Jun	221	4	1.8%	40^th
2004 Jul-Sep	161	2	1.2%	27^th
2004 Oct-Dec	58	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Jan-Mar	90	6	6.7%	75^th
2005 Apr-Jun	272	2	0.7%	24^th
2005 Jul-Sep	146	22	15.1%	96^th
2005 Oct-Dec	163	5	3.1%	55^th
2006 Jan-Mar	81	6	7.4%	84^th
2006 Apr-Jun	169	35	20.7%	98^th

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
GPO.gov/FDSys, for sponsored bills

Thomas “Tom” DeLay is pronounced:

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Rep. Thomas “Tom” DeLay

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