Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
House Minority Leader and Representative for New York’s 8th District
pronounced huh-KEEM // JEF-reess
Jeffries is the representative for New York’s 8th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Jeffries’s current term ends on Jan 3, 2025. He is 54 years old.
He is also House Minority Leader, a party leadership role. Party leaders focus more on setting their party’s legislative priorties than on introducing legislation.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Jeffries is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives 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 have sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Nov 29, 2024. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Jeffries was the primary sponsor of 11 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 7181 (117th): Human Trafficking Prevention Act of 2022
- H.R. 5796 (117th): Patents for Humanity Act of 2022
- H.R. 2471 (117th): Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022
- H.R. 2093 (117th): Veterans and Family Information Act
- H.R. 704 (117th): ARTS Act
- H.R. 4508 (116th): Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act
- H.R. 2426 (116th): CASE Act of 2019
Does 11 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
Jeffries sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Crime and Law Enforcement (35%) Commerce (16%) International Affairs (13%) Health (10%) Transportation and Public Works (6%) Environmental Protection (6%) Education (6%) Armed Forces and National Security (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Jeffries recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.Res. 1396: Recognizing a half century of the independence of the Republic of Cabo Verde …
- H.Res. 1471 (117th): Electing a certain Member to a certain standing committee of the House …
- H.Res. 1347 (117th): Electing certain Members to certain standing committees of the House of Representatives.
- H.R. 8643 (117th): Student Loan Literacy Act of 2022
- H.Res. 1173 (117th): Electing Members to certain standing committees of the House of Representatives.
- H.R. 7273 (117th): Prison to Proprietorship for Formerly Incarcerated Act
- H.R. 7181 (117th): Human Trafficking Prevention Act of 2022
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
As House Minority Leader, Jeffries may be focused on his responsibilities other than introducing legislation, such as setting the chamber’s agenda, uniting his party, and brokering deals.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2013 to Nov 2024, Jeffries missed 156 of 6,893 roll call votes, which is 2.3%. This is on par with the median of 2.2% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills