Petri was the representative for Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1979 to 2014.
![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 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
Does 4 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
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%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Petri recently introduced the following legislation:
- 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
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
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.
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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
