Rep. Douglas Walgren
Former Representative for Pennsylvania’s 18th District
Walgren was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1977 to 1990.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Walgren is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1990 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 Walgren sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1985 to Oct 27, 1990. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Walgren was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 996 (101st): Excellence in Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education Act of 1990
- H.R. 3968 (101st): To amend the Organ Transplant Amendments Act of 1988 to change an effective date.
- H.J.Res. 397 (101st): Designating November 12-18, 1989 as “National Glaucoma Awareness Week”.
- H.R. 4418 (100th): National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 1988
- H.R. 4417 (100th): A bill to authorize appropriations to the Secretary of Commerce for the programs of the National Bureau of Standards for fiscal year 1989, and for other purposes.
- H.R. 4419 (100th): A bill to authorize appropriations for activities under the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974.
- H.J.Res. 660 (100th): A joint resolution to designate October 30, 1988 as “Fire Safety at Home Day - Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery”.
Does 13 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
Walgren sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (22%) Science, Technology, Communications (15%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (12%) Economics and Public Finance (11%) Government Operations and Politics (10%) Education (10%) Social Welfare (10%) Environmental Protection (10%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Walgren recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5958 (101st): Tropical Forest Consumer Information and Protection Act of 1990
- H.R. 5930 (101st): To provide authority for the President to seize Iraqi-held interests in U.S. …
- H.R. 5543 (101st): Behavioral and Social Sciences Directorate Act of 1990
- H.R. 5224 (101st): Gas Related Activities Act of 1990
- H.R. 5225 (101st): To amend the Defense Production Act of 1950 to clarify and strengthen …
- H.R. 4951 (101st): Medicare Home Hemodialysis Improvement Act of 1990
- H.R. 4952 (101st): Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 1990
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1977 to Oct 1990, Walgren missed 400 of 7,267 roll call votes, which is 5.5%. This is on par with the median of 4.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1990. 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