Rep. Omar Burleson

Former Representative for Texas’s 17^th District

Burleson was the representative for Texas’s 17^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1947 to 1978.

Bioguide

Photo of Rep. Omar Burleson [D-TX17, 1947-1978]

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Burleson is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1978 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 Burleson sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1973 to Oct 15, 1978. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Burleson was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:

H.R. 7706 (94th): An Act to suspend the duty on natural graphite until the close of June 30, 1978, and for other purposes.

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Does 1 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Burleson sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Taxation (39%) Health (16%) Social Welfare (13%) Education (10%) Finance and Financial Sector (7%) Labor and Employment (5%) Government Operations and Politics (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Burleson recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1947 to Oct 1978, Burleson missed 274 of 7,614 roll call votes, which is 3.6%. This is better than the median of 8.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1978. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1947 Jan-Mar	24	0	0.0%	0^th
1947 Apr-Jun	32	1	3.1%	36^th
1947 Jul-Jul	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1947 Nov-Dec	6	0	0.0%	0^th
1948 Jan-Mar	21	0	0.0%	0^th
1948 Apr-Jun	54	1	1.9%	45^th
1948 Aug-Aug	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jan-Mar	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Apr-Jun	27	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jul-Sep	43	4	9.3%	78^th
1949 Oct-Oct	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jan-Mar	54	1	1.9%	52^nd
1950 Apr-Jun	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jul-Sep	59	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Dec-Dec	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Jan 81st Congress	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Apr-Jun	40	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jul-Sep	39	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Apr-Jun	40	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Jul-Jul	10	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jan-Mar	13	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Apr-Jun	28	1	3.6%	38^th
1953 Jul-Aug	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Apr-Jun	24	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jul-Aug	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Jan-Mar	21	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Apr-Jun	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Jul-Aug	19	0	0.0%	0^th
1956 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1956 Apr-Jun	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1956 Jul-Jul	31	5	16.1%	93^rd
1957 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1957 Apr-Jun	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1957 Jul-Aug	52	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Jan-Mar	21	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Apr-Jun	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Jul-Aug	40	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 Jan-Apr	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 May-Aug	54	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 Sep-Sep	17	0	0.0%	0^th
1960 Feb-Apr	23	2	8.7%	89^th
1960 May-Aug	70	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 Jan-Apr	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 May-Aug	65	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 Sep-Sep	29	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jan-Mar	21	1	4.8%	66^th
1962 Apr-Jun	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jul-Sep	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Oct-Oct	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jan-Mar	9	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jul-Sep	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Oct-Dec	50	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jan-Mar	26	1	3.8%	64^th
1964 Apr-Jun	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Oct-Oct	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	1	1.9%	18^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Oct-Oct	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	14	46.7%	98^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	25	49.0%	94^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	0	0.0%	0^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Jan-Mar	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Apr-Jun	57	4	7.0%	90^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	2	2.0%	40^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	1	2.6%	62^nd
1968 Apr-Jun	79	2	2.5%	54^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	1	4.0%	34^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	8	28.6%	91^st
1969 Jul-Sep	45	4	8.9%	45^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	2	2.3%	12^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	5	14.3%	63^rd
1970 Apr-Jun	74	3	4.1%	11^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	28	36.8%	93^rd
1970 Oct-Dec	81	1	1.2%	8^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	4	18.2%	78^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	10	11.1%	43^rd
1971 Jul-Sep	74	3	4.1%	29^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	15	11.2%	48^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	3	4.7%	28^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	6	5.3%	24^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	0	0.0%	0^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	5	10.0%	39^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	4	2.1%	12^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	19	14.5%	84^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	2	1.1%	10^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	2	2.5%	18^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	3	1.8%	10^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	7	4.7%	41^st
1974 Oct-Dec	141	0	0.0%	0^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	4	5.9%	49^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	7	3.5%	30^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	1	0.6%	7^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	0	0.0%	0^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	0	0.0%	0^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	1	0.4%	2^nd
1976 Jul-Sep	281	1	0.4%	4^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	3	3.0%	28^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	5	1.8%	12^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	1	0.5%	6^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	5	3.7%	28^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	4	2.7%	21^st
1978 Apr-Jun	300	11	3.7%	22^nd
1978 Jul-Sep	308	23	7.5%	45^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	7	9.2%	61^st

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