Rep. Rubén Hinojosa
Former Representative for Texas’s 15th District
Hinojosa was the representative for Texas’s 15th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1997 to 2016.
![Photo of Rep. Rubén Hinojosa [D-TX15, 1997-2016]](/static/legislator-photos/400179-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2016 Report Card for Hinojosa.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Hinojosa is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2016 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 legislators sponsored and cosponsored from Jan. 5, 2011 to Dec. 30, 2016. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Hinojosa was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 1072 (109th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 151 West End Street in Goliad, Texas, as the “Judge Emilio Vargas Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 4829 (108th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 103 East Kleberg in Kingsville, Texas, as the “Irma Rangel Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 4299 (108th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 410 South Jackson Road in Edinburg, Texas, as the “Dr. Miguel A. Nevarez Post Office …
- H.R. 2990 (107th): Lower Rio Grande Valley Water Resources Conservation and Improvement Act of 2002
- H.R. 2988 (106th): Lower Rio Grande Valley Water Resources Conservation and Improvement Act of 1999
Does 5 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
Hinojosa sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Education (43%) Finance and Financial Sector (14%) Taxation (7%) Housing and Community Development (7%) Labor and Employment (7%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (7%) Health (7%) Armed Forces and National Security (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Hinojosa recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 4834 (114th): North American Development Bank General Capital Increase Authorization Act of 2016
- H.Res. 505 (114th): Honoring the 50th anniversary of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
- H.R. 3721 (114th): Affordable College Textbook Act
- H.R. 1956 (114th): Pell Grant Protection Act
- H.R. 1959 (114th): College Options for DREAMers Act
- H.R. 1958 (114th): Year-Round Pell Grant Restoration Act
- H.R. 1957 (114th): Pell Grant Cost of Tuition Adjustment Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1997 to Dec 2016, Hinojosa missed 1,496 of 13,498 roll call votes, which is 11.1%. This is much worse than the median of 2.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2016. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absences, 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
