William Clinger, former Representative for Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District

Clinger was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 5^th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1993 to 1996.

He was previously the representative for Pennsylvania’s 23^rd congressional district as a Republican from 1979 to 1992.

Photo of Rep. William Clinger [R-PA5, 1993-1996]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Clinger is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1996 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 Clinger sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Clinger was the primary sponsor of 6 bills that were enacted:

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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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Clinger sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (32%) Economics and Public Finance (15%) Labor and Employment (12%) Law (11%) Environmental Protection (9%) Commerce (8%) Transportation and Public Works (7%) Science, Technology, Communications (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Clinger recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1979 to Sep 1996, Clinger missed 355 of 9,121 roll call votes, which is 3.9%. This is on par with the median of 2.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Sep 1996. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1979 Jan-Mar	63	1	1.6%	33^rd
1979 Apr-Jun	221	2	0.9%	8^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	5	2.5%	22^nd
1979 Oct-Dec	190	11	5.8%	24^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	3	2.0%	7^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	4	2.0%	18^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	0	0.0%	0^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	1	1.5%	5^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	0	0.0%	0^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	1	2.1%	29^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	2	1.7%	26^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	2	1.0%	8^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	1	1.0%	10^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	3	7.0%	46^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	1	0.8%	10^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	3	2.1%	20^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	3	5.7%	52^nd
1984 Apr-Jun	223	8	3.6%	35^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	2	2.1%	32^nd
1984 Oct-Oct	36	2	5.6%	46^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	2	5.6%	38^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	15	9.7%	82^nd
1985 Jul-Sep	101	3	3.0%	40^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	12	8.1%	79^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	11	18.0%	86^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	3	2.3%	39^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	3	1.5%	33^rd
1986 Oct-Oct	60	5	8.3%	71^st
1987 Jan-Mar	39	3	7.7%	71^st
1987 Apr-Jun	187	5	2.7%	36^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	4	4.2%	61^st
1987 Oct-Dec	167	3	1.8%	15^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	10	20.4%	93^rd
1988 Apr-Jun	161	6	3.7%	48^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	6	3.9%	45^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	1	1.0%	18^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	1	0.8%	18^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	3	2.5%	33^rd
1990 Jan-Mar	60	1	1.7%	34^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	18	12.0%	89^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	5	2.7%	48^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	2	1.4%	29^th
1991 Jan-Mar	62	4	6.5%	78^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	5	3.6%	58^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	1	1.2%	12^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	1	0.6%	16^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	2	3.0%	49^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	11	5.9%	72^nd
1992 Jul-Sep	196	8	4.1%	60^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	4	3.1%	58^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	5	2.6%	49^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	5	3.0%	65^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	51	38.1%	100^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	2	2.1%	38^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	10	4.6%	74^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	9	6.3%	77^th
1994 Oct-Nov	51	1	2.0%	47^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	10	3.6%	78^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	2	1.1%	30^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	10	4.3%	76^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	6	3.2%	64^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	5	4.5%	70^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	18	9.9%	89^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	8	4.9%	76^th

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
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. William Clinger

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