Rep. Henry González
Former Representative for Texas’s 20th District
González was the representative for Texas’s 20th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1961 to 1998.
![Photo of Rep. Henry González [D-TX20, 1961-1998]](/https/www.govtrack.us/static/legislator-photos/404634-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
González is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1998 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 González sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 1993 to Dec 17, 1998. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
González was the primary sponsor of 34 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 3474 (103rd): Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994
- H.R. 2517 (103rd): HUD Demonstration Act of 1993
- H.R. 5334 (102nd): Housing and Community Development Act of 1992
- H.R. 6050 (102nd): Depository Institutions Disaster Relief Act of 1992
- H.R. 3576 (102nd): To amend the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to reserve assistance under the HOME Investment Partnerships Act for certain insular areas.
- H.R. 3435 (102nd): Resolution Trust Corporation, Refinancing, Restructuring, and Improvement Act of 1991
- H.R. 5933 (101st): To provide for the temporary extension of the certain laws relating to housing and community development.
Does 34 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
González sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Finance and Financial Sector (21%) Government Operations and Politics (18%) Crime and Law Enforcement (12%) Housing and Community Development (11%) Law (11%) Commerce (10%) Labor and Employment (9%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
González recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 1442 (105th): Federal Reserve Free Enterprise Act
- H.R. 1160 (105th): Federal Reserve Audit and Accountability Act
- H.Res. 35 (105th): Expressing the condolences of the House on the death of the Honorable …
- H.R. 3003 (104th): Rent-To-Own Reform Act of 1996
- H.J.Res. 99 (104th): Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to prohibit …
- H.R. 1657 (104th): Federal Home Loan Bank System Restructuring and Modernization Act of 1995
- H.Res. 110 (104th): Affirming the support of the House of Representatives for the American Consumer …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1962 to Dec 1998, González missed 1,169 of 16,517 roll call votes, which is 7.1%. This is much worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1998. 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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills