Rep. George Miller O’Brien

Former Representative for Illinois’s 4^th District

O’Brien was the representative for Illinois’s 4^th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1983 to 1986.

He was previously the representative for Illinois’s 17^th congressional district as a Republican from 1973 to 1982.

Bioguide

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

O’Brien is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1986 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 O’Brien sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 1981 to Oct 18, 1986. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

O’Brien was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:

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Does 2 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

O’Brien sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (21%) Transportation and Public Works (16%) Environmental Protection (16%) Labor and Employment (16%) Economics and Public Finance (11%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (11%) International Affairs (11%)

Recently Introduced Bills

O’Brien recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1973 to Jul 1986, O’Brien missed 1,058 of 7,535 roll call votes, which is 14.0%. This is much worse than the median of 6.2% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jul 1986. 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
1973 Jan-Mar	36	3	8.3%	56^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	19	9.9%	63^rd
1973 Jul-Sep	131	24	18.3%	87^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	17	9.3%	61^st
1974 Jan-Mar	79	12	15.2%	75^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	2	1.2%	4^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	8	5.4%	51^st
1974 Oct-Dec	141	8	5.7%	29^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	14	20.6%	91^st
1975 Apr-Jun	199	38	19.1%	93^rd
1975 Jul-Sep	154	7	4.5%	42^nd
1975 Oct-Dec	191	22	11.5%	81^st
1976 Jan-Mar	106	11	10.4%	67^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	14	5.2%	28^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	6	2.1%	19^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	4	4.0%	39^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	22	8.1%	53^rd
1977 Jul-Sep	198	13	6.6%	59^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	3	2.2%	25^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	16	10.7%	70^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	54	18.0%	83^rd
1978 Jul-Sep	308	18	5.8%	42^nd
1978 Oct-Oct	76	3	3.9%	36^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	11	17.5%	83^rd
1979 Apr-Jun	221	36	16.3%	87^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	25	12.6%	79^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	29	15.3%	76^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	17	11.5%	65^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	27	13.7%	77^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	24	12.5%	71^st
1980 Oct-Dec	67	53	79.1%	99^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	2	13.3%	73^rd
1981 Apr-Jun	90	10	11.1%	71^st
1981 Jul-Sep	106	11	10.4%	77^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	24	16.9%	87^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	22	45.8%	97^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	9	7.6%	69^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	45	23.3%	94^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	18	18.2%	81^st
1983 Jan-Mar	43	14	32.6%	98^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	11	6.0%	46^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	7	5.4%	61^st
1983 Oct-Nov	143	42	29.4%	97^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	10	18.9%	85^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	12	5.4%	43^rd
1984 Jul-Sep	96	6	6.2%	58^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	2	5.6%	48^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	8	22.2%	92^nd
1985 Apr-Jun	154	25	16.2%	94^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	17	16.8%	94^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	46	31.1%	99^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	34	55.7%	98^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	101	78.9%	99^th
1986 Jul-Sep	22	22	100.0%	100^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
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