Rep. Ike Skelton
Former Representative for Missouri’s 4th District
Skelton was the representative for Missouri’s 4th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1977 to 2010.
![Photo of Rep. Ike Skelton [D-MO4, 1977-2010]](/https/www.govtrack.us/static/legislator-photos/400377-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Skelton is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2010 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 Skelton sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2005 to Dec 21, 2010. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Skelton was the primary sponsor of 12 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 6523 (111th): Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011
- H.R. 4887 (111th): TRICARE Affirmation Act
- H.R. 2647 (111th): National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010
- H.J.Res. 44 (111th): Recognizing the service, sacrifice, honor, and professionalism of the Noncommissioned Officers of the United States Army.
- H.R. 2990 (111th): Disabled Military Retiree Relief Act of 2009
- H.R. 5714 (110th): United States Army Commemorative Coin Act of 2008
- H.R. 5658 (110th): Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009
Does 12 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
Skelton sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Armed Forces and National Security (32%) Government Operations and Politics (16%) International Affairs (13%) Economics and Public Finance (11%) Health (8%) Finance and Financial Sector (8%) Environmental Protection (6%) Labor and Employment (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Skelton recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 6523 (111th): Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011
- H.R. 6249 (111th): Interagency National Security Professional Education, Administration, and Development System Act of 2010
- H.Res. 1516 (111th): Recognizing the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II, honoring …
- H.Res. 1385 (111th): Recognizing and honoring the courage and sacrifice of the members of the …
- H.Res. 1356 (111th): Recognizing the 150th anniversary of the birth of General John J. Pershing, …
- H.R. 5136 (111th): National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011
- H.R. 4887 (111th): TRICARE Affirmation Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1977 to Dec 2010, Skelton missed 939 of 20,024 roll call votes, which is 4.7%. This is worse than the median of 3.1% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2010. 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills