Herger was the representative for California’s 2nd congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1987 to 2012.
![Photo of Rep. Walter “Wally” Herger [R-CA2, 1987-2012]](/static/legislator-photos/400176-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Herger is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2013 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 Herger sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2007 to Jan 1, 2013. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Herger was the primary sponsor of 15 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 3321 (112th): America’s Cup Act of 2011
- H.R. 674 (112th): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the imposition of 3 percent withholding on certain payments made to vendors by government entities, to modify ...
- H.R. 689 (111th): Shasta-Trinity National Forest Administrative Jurisdiction Transfer Act
- H.R. 3375 (110th): To extend the trade adjustment assistance program under the Trade Act of 1974 for 3 months.
- H.R. 4635 (109th): TANF and Child Care Continuation Act of 2005
- H.R. 3021 (109th): TANF Extension Act of 2005
- H.R. 1160 (109th): Welfare Reform Extension Act of 2005
Does 15 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
Herger sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Taxation (38%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (21%) Commerce (10%) Health (10%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (5%) Economics and Public Finance (5%) Transportation and Public Works (5%)
Recent Bills
Some of Herger’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 6645 (112th): Save and Strengthen Medicare Act of 2012
- H.R. 5858 (112th): Health Savings Accounts Improvements Act of 2012
- H.R. 5104 (112th): To suspend temporarily the duty on ski poles and parts and accessories ...
- H.R. 4013 (112th): Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2012
- H.R. 3685 (112th): To amend the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery Act to extend ...
- H.R. 3321 (112th): America’s Cup Act of 2011
- H.R. 2502 (112th): Public Good IRA Rollover Act of 2011
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1987 to Jan 2013, Herger missed 527 of 16,206 roll call votes, which is 3.3%. This is on par with the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jan 2013. 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
