William “Bill” Thomas, former Representative for California's 22nd Congressional District

Thomas was the representative for California’s 22^nd congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 2003 to 2006.

He was previously the representative for California’s 21^st congressional district as a Republican from 1993 to 2002; the representative for California’s 20^th congressional district as a Republican from 1983 to 1992; and the representative for California’s 18^th congressional district as a Republican from 1979 to 1982.

Photo of Rep. William “Bill” Thomas [R-CA22, 2003-2006]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Thomas is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2006 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 Thomas sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2001 to Dec 8, 2006. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Thomas was the primary sponsor of 29 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 29 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

Thomas sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (17%) Taxation (14%) Economics and Public Finance (13%) Law (12%) Labor and Employment (11%) Commerce (11%) Social Welfare (11%) Finance and Financial Sector (10%)

Recent Bills

Some of Thomas’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1979 to Dec 2006, Thomas missed 958 of 14,953 roll call votes, which is 6.4%. This is much worse than the median of 2.9% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2006. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1979 Jan-Mar	63	5	7.9%	68^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	14	6.3%	46^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	13	6.6%	65^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	23	12.1%	76^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	31	20.9%	86^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	29	14.7%	81^st
1980 Jul-Sep	192	17	8.9%	68^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	22	32.8%	92^nd
1981 Jan-Mar	15	1	6.7%	46^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	16	17.8%	90^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	8	7.5%	67^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	23	16.2%	88^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	4	8.3%	69^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	19	16.0%	90^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	27	14.0%	88^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	24	24.2%	88^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	3	7.0%	43^rd
1983 Apr-Jun	182	24	13.2%	84^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	6	4.6%	59^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	9	6.3%	62^nd
1984 Jan-Mar	53	11	20.8%	89^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	16	7.2%	51^st
1984 Jul-Sep	96	21	21.9%	96^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	1	2.8%	28^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	3	8.3%	49^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	17	11.0%	86^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	12	11.9%	82^nd
1985 Oct-Dec	148	1	0.7%	14^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	4	6.6%	56^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	7	5.5%	70^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	28	13.9%	93^rd
1986 Oct-Oct	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	3	7.7%	74^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	11	5.9%	66^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	6	6.3%	74^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	28	16.8%	96^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	13	8.1%	75^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	4	2.6%	39^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	1	1.1%	38^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	52^nd
1989 Apr-Jun	105	9	8.6%	90^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	3	2.3%	50^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	41	27.3%	96^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	7	3.8%	65^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	19	13.3%	94^th
1991 Jan-Mar	62	4	6.5%	81^st
1991 Apr-Jun	139	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	19	23.5%	96^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	16	9.9%	91^st
1992 Jan-Mar	66	19	28.8%	99^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	33	17.8%	97^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	7	3.6%	62^nd
1992 Oct-Oct	41	2	4.9%	62^nd
1993 Jan-Mar	127	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	9	4.7%	69^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	7	4.3%	78^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	4	3.0%	67^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	4	4.2%	66^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	14	6.4%	85^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	4	2.8%	53^rd
1994 Oct-Nov	51	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	1	0.4%	19^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	1	0.5%	19^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	1	0.4%	19^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	4	2.2%	53^rd
1996 Jan-Mar	110	5	4.5%	74^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	4	2.2%	47^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	2	1.2%	37^th
1997 Jan-Mar	71	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Apr-Jun	174	1	0.6%	18^th
1997 Jul-Sep	232	6	2.6%	64^th
1997 Oct-Nov	163	4	2.5%	55^th
1998 Jan-Mar	89	2	2.2%	49^th
1998 Apr-Jun	185	2	1.1%	33^rd
1998 Jul-Sep	199	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Oct-Dec	74	1	1.4%	40^th
1999 Jan-Mar	77	1	1.3%	34^th
1999 Apr-Jun	184	39	21.2%	100^th
1999 Jul-Sep	204	7	3.4%	72^nd
1999 Oct-Nov	146	5	3.4%	61^st
2000 Jan-Mar	95	2	2.1%	38^th
2000 Apr-Jun	277	12	4.3%	70^th
2000 Jul-Sep	130	3	2.3%	55^th
2000 Oct-Dec	101	1	1.0%	11^th
2001 Jan-Mar	75	5	6.7%	81^st
2001 Apr-Jun	135	13	9.6%	94^th
2001 Jul-Sep	149	3	2.0%	52^nd
2001 Oct-Dec	153	1	0.7%	19^th
2002 Jan-Mar	79	6	7.6%	85^th
2002 Apr-Jun	203	5	2.5%	46^th
2002 Jul-Sep	141	7	5.0%	71^st
2002 Oct-Nov	61	2	3.3%	55^th
2003 Jan-Mar	94	0	0.0%	0^th
2003 Apr-Jun	239	0	0.0%	0^th
2003 Jul-Sep	193	3	1.6%	42^nd
2003 Oct-Dec	151	5	3.3%	51^st
2004 Jan-Mar	104	4	3.8%	49^th
2004 Apr-Jun	221	13	5.9%	77^th
2004 Jul-Sep	161	2	1.2%	27^th
2004 Oct-Dec	58	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Jan-Mar	90	3	3.3%	50^th
2005 Apr-Jun	272	20	7.4%	86^th
2005 Jul-Sep	146	8	5.5%	75^th
2005 Oct-Dec	163	1	0.6%	17^th
2006 Jan-Mar	81	2	2.5%	59^th
2006 Apr-Jun	276	9	3.3%	63^rd
2006 Jul-Sep	159	14	8.8%	88^th
2006 Nov-Dec	27	1	3.7%	48^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
Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. William “Bill” Thomas

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