Rep. James Lightfoot
Former Representative for Iowa’s 3rd District
![Photo of Rep. James Lightfoot [R-IA3, 1993-1996]](/https/www.govtrack.us/static/legislator-photos/406799-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Lightfoot is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1996 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 Lightfoot sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Lightfoot was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 2020 (104th): Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act, 1996
- H.R. 952 (101st): To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide for the development of a trails interpretation center in the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and for other …
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 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Lightfoot sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (19%) Taxation (15%) Transportation and Public Works (13%) Agriculture and Food (11%) Labor and Employment (11%) Law (11%) Social Welfare (9%) Economics and Public Finance (9%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Lightfoot recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 4206 (104th): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that the …
- H.R. 4054 (104th): To provide relief to agricultural producers who granted easements to, or owned …
- H.R. 3756 (104th): Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act, 1997
- H.R. 3481 (104th): To repeal the minimum wage requirement of the Fair Labor Standards Act …
- H.R. 3251 (104th): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand the applicability …
- H.Res. 315 (104th): Calling on the people of the United States to set a place …
- H.R. 2020 (104th): Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act, 1996
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1985 to Sep 1996, Lightfoot missed 166 of 6,127 roll call votes, which is 2.7%. This is on par with the median of 2.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Sep 1996. 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