Boner was the representative for Tennessee’s 5th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1979 to 1988.
Alleged misconduct & resolution
On Feb. 5, 1986, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct began investigating Boner for violations of the gift rule, improper use of campaign funds, conflict of interest, and improper use of official resources and preliminary inquiry authorized. On Apr. 23, 1987, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct deferred at DOJ request. On Sep. 23, 1987, Boner was elected mayor of Nashville. On Oct. 5, 1987, he resigned from Congress. On Dec. 14, 1987, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct staff report was published.
| Feb. 5, 1986 | House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct preliminary inquiry authorized |
| Apr. 23, 1987 | House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct deferred at DOJ request |
| Sep. 23, 1987 | Boner was elected mayor of Nashville. |
| Oct. 5, 1987 | Resigned from Congress. |
| Dec. 14, 1987 | House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct staff report published |
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Boner is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1988 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 Boner sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1983 to Oct 22, 1988. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Boner was the primary sponsor of 6 bills that were enacted:
- H.J.Res. 642 (99th): A joint resolution to designate the week beginning May 17, 1987, as “National Tourism Week”.
- H.J.Res. 296 (99th): A joint resolution to designate the week beginning on May 18, 1986, as “National Tourism Week”.
- H.J.Res. 222 (99th): A joint resolution to designate the month of September 1985 as “National Sewing Month”.
- H.J.Res. 491 (98th): A joint resolution to designate the month of September 1984 as “National Sewing Month”.
- H.J.Res. 218 (98th): A joint resolution to designate the month of September of 1983, as “National Sewing Month”.
- H.J.Res. 492 (97th): A joint resolution to designate September, 1982 as “National Sewing Month”.
Does 6 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
Boner sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Social Welfare (30%) Taxation (18%) Government Operations and Politics (15%) Families (9%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (9%) Immigration (6%) Transportation and Public Works (6%) Economics and Public Finance (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Boner’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 3136 (100th): A bill to establish certain requirements relating to the identification, treatment, and ...
- H.R. 2538 (100th): A bill to award a congressional gold medal to Roy Acuff.
- H.R. 2493 (100th): A bill to amend the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982 ...
- H.R. 2396 (100th): A bill to amend title II of the Social Security Act to ...
- H.R. 1027 (100th): A bill to amend title II of the Social Security Act to ...
- H.R. 954 (100th): Excellence in Minority Health Education and Care Act
- H.R. 628 (100th): Prevention, Identification, and Treatment of Elder Abuse Act of 1987
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1979 to Oct 1987, Boner missed 555 of 4,211 roll call votes, which is 13.2%. This is much worse than the median of 5.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1987. 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
- 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
