Petri was the representative for Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1979 to 2014.
Alleged misconduct & resolution
In 2014 Petri was investigated for performing official work on behalf of companies in which he had a financial interest from 2008 to 2013. The House Committee on Ethics recommended no further action. Petri announced in November 2014 he would not seek reelection.
| Jul. 2, 2014 | House Office of Congressional Ethics recommended that the Committee on Ethics further review the allegation |
| Dec. 11, 2014 | House Committee on Ethics recommended no further action |
| November 2014 | Petri announced he would not seek reelection. |
![Photo of Rep. Thomas “Tom” Petri [R-WI6, 1979-2014]](/static/legislator-photos/400318-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2014 Report Card for Petri.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Petri is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2014 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 Petri sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2009 to Dec 11, 2014. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Petri was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 4219 (108th): Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2004, Part II
- H.J.Res. 110 (103rd): To authorize the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct appropriate programs and activities to acknowledge the status of the county of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, ...
- H.R. 3835 (98th): A bill to designate the United States Post Office Building in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as the “William A. Steiger Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 5533 (97th): Training for Jobs Act
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
Petri sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Education (34%) Taxation (20%) Transportation and Public Works (17%) Labor and Employment (11%) Social Welfare (9%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (9%)
Recent Bills
Some of Petri’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 5638 (113th): To allow railroad employees to remain on duty as necessary to clear ...
- H.Con.Res. 112 (113th): Providing for a conditional adjournment of the House of Representatives and a ...
- H.R. 4834 (113th): Generating Renewal, Opportunity, and Work with Accelerated Mobility, Efficiency, and Rebuilding of ...
- H.R. 4436 (113th): Investing in Student Success Act of 2014
- H.R. 3586 (113th): Citizen Involvement in Campaigns Act of 2013
- H.R. 3505 (113th): TEACH Act
- H.R. 2470 (113th): Making Work and Marriage Pay Act of 2013
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Feb 1979 to Dec 2014, Petri missed 233 of 21,223 roll call votes, which is 1.1%. This is better than the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2014. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
