Rep. Kenneth Gray
Former Representative for Illinois’s 22nd District
Gray was the representative for Illinois’s 22nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1985 to 1988.
He was previously the representative for Illinois’s 24th congressional district as a Democrat from 1973 to 1974; the representative for Illinois’s 21st congressional district as a Democrat from 1963 to 1972; and the representative for Illinois’s 25th congressional district as a Democrat from 1955 to 1962.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Gray is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1988 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. 3, 1983 to Oct. 22, 1988. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Gray was the primary sponsor of 9 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 2962 (99th): A bill to remove certain restrictions on the availability of office space for former Speakers of the House.
- H.R. 17026 (93rd): An Act relating to former Speakers of the House of Representatives.
- H.R. 17027 (93rd): A bill to amend the National Visitor Center Facilities Act of 1968.
- H.R. 5507 (93rd): A bill to authorize the conveyance to the city of Salem, Ill., of a statue of William Jennings Bryan.
- H.R. 6862 (93rd): A bill to name the headquarters building in the Geological Survey National Center under construction in Reston, Va., as the John Wesley Powell Federal Building.
- H.R. 6330 (93rd): A bill to amend section 8 of the Public Buildings Act of 1959, relating to the District of Columbia.
- H.R. 5857 (93rd): An Act to amend the National Visitor Center Facilities Act of 1968, and for other purposes.
Does 9 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
Gray sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (18%) Armed Forces and National Security (18%) Transportation and Public Works (18%) Social Welfare (10%) Environmental Protection (10%) Taxation (10%) Economics and Public Finance (8%) Housing and Community Development (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Gray recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5431 (100th): A bill to authorize the Governor of Illinois to use funds from …
- H.R. 4890 (100th): A bill to designate Jackson and Williamson Counties in Illinois as a …
- H.R. 4755 (100th): A bill for the relief of H.H. Barter, doing business as Barter …
- H.R. 4630 (100th): Water Resources Development Act of 1988
- H.R. 4613 (100th): Water Resources Development Act of 1988
- H.R. 4106 (100th): A bill to designate Jackson, Perry, and Randolph Counties in Illinois as …
- H.R. 2263 (100th): A bill to direct the Secretary of the Army to transfer to …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1955 to Oct 1988, Gray missed 988 of 5,864 roll call votes, which is 16.8%. This is much worse than the median of 5.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1988. 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
- 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
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills