Dickinson was the representative for Alabama’s 2nd congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1965 to 1992.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Dickinson is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1992 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 Dickinson sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1987 to Oct 9, 1992. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Dickinson was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 1781 (96th): A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to provide that civilian air traffic controllers of the Department of Defense shall be treated the same as …
- H.R. 3002 (96th): Meat Import Act of 1979
- H.R. 13692 (95th): A bill granting the consent of Congress to the Historic Chattahoochee Compact between the States of Alabama and Georgia.
- H.R. 13964 (94th): A bill for the relief of Jeanette Green, as mother of the minor child, Ricky Baker, deceased, and as widow and administratrix of the estate of Enoch …
- H.R. 9075 (93rd): An Act to authorize the disposition of certain office equipment and furnishings, and for other purposes.
Does 5 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
Dickinson sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (30%) Taxation (30%) Environmental Protection (20%) Transportation and Public Works (20%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Dickinson recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5437 (102nd): To require the construction of a memorial on Federal land in the …
- H.R. 4195 (102nd): To direct the Secretary of Transportation to carry out a limited access …
- H.R. 686 (102nd): Environmental Infrastructure Act of 1991
- H.R. 602 (102nd): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make permanent the …
- H.J.Res. 81 (102nd): Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States establishing English …
- H.R. 468 (102nd): To direct the Secretary of Transportation to carry out a highway demonstration …
- H.R. 5403 (101st): COLA Equity Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1965 to Oct 1992, Dickinson missed 1,432 of 12,514 roll call votes, which is 11.4%. This is much worse than the median of 4.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1992. 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
- 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
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
