Rep. Parren Mitchell
Former Representative for Maryland’s 7th District
Mitchell was the representative for Maryland’s 7th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1971 to 1986.
![Photo of Rep. Parren Mitchell [D-MD7, 1971-1986]](/https/www.govtrack.us/static/legislator-photos/407801-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Mitchell 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 Mitchell sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 1981 to Oct 18, 1986. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Mitchell was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 1010 (99th): A bill for the relief of Audrey O. Lewis and Emerson B. Vereen.
- H.R. 5677 (99th): A bill to extend through fiscal year 1988 SBA Pilot Programs under section 8 of the Small Business Act.
- H.R. 3608 (99th): A bill to amend the Small Business Investment Act of 1958.
- H.R. 5298 (98th): White House Conference on Small Business Authorization Act
- H.R. 4013 (98th): A bill to extend the Small Business Development Center program administered by the SBA until January 1, 1985.
- H.R. 4828 (97th): A bill to set aside certain surplus vessels for use in the provision of health and other humanitarian services to developing countries.
- H.R. 2145 (96th): An Act for the relief of Florette Ivoree Gayle and Keisha Dajaran Karr.
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
Mitchell sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Commerce (39%) Government Operations and Politics (23%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Labor and Employment (7%) Armed Forces and National Security (6%) International Affairs (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Mitchell recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5677 (99th): A bill to extend through fiscal year 1988 SBA Pilot Programs under …
- H.J.Res. 696 (99th): A joint resolution to designate the week beginning November 9, 1986, as …
- H.R. 5296 (99th): A bill for the relief of Egya Quaison-Sackey.
- H.R. 5019 (99th): Corporation for Small Business Investment Charter Act
- H.R. 4679 (99th): Community Development Block Grant Improvement Act of 1986
- H.R. 4632 (99th): A bill to clarify and expand the functions of the Associate Administrator …
- H.R. 4112 (99th): A bill to provide for equity in the establishment of patent fees.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1971 to Oct 1986, Mitchell missed 943 of 8,422 roll call votes, which is 11.2%. This is worse than the median of 6.2% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 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.
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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills