Vandergriff was the representative for Texas’s 26th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1983 to 1984.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Vandergriff is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1984 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 Vandergriff sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 15, 1979 to Oct 11, 1984. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Vandergriff was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- H.J.Res. 545 (98th): A joint resolution designating the week of September 16 through 22, 1984 as “Emergency Medicine Week”.
- H.R. 3615 (98th): A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to increase the cap amount allowable for reimbursement of hospices under the medicare program.
Does 2 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
Vandergriff sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Social Welfare (60%) Health (40%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Vandergriff recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.J.Res. 641 (98th): A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution with respect to …
- H.Res. 530 (98th): A resolution urging continuation of tax deductibility of residential mortgage interest payments.
- H.R. 5880 (98th): A bill to amend section 459 of the Social Security Act to …
- H.R. 5623 (98th): National Wildflower Landscaping Act of 1984
- H.J.Res. 545 (98th): A joint resolution designating the week of September 16 through 22, 1984 …
- H.R. 5141 (98th): A bill to amend part A of title XVIII of the Social …
- H.R. 4703 (98th): Congressional Pay Responsibility Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1983 to Oct 1984, Vandergriff missed 34 of 906 roll call votes, which is 3.8%. This is better than the median of 7.0% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1984. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
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
- 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
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
