Rep. Joe Cunningham
Former Representative for South Carolina’s 1st District
pronounced joh // KUH-ning-ham
Cunningham was the representative for South Carolina’s 1st congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 2019 to 2020.
![Photo of Rep. Joe Cunningham [D-SC1, 2019-2020]](/https/www.govtrack.us/static/legislator-photos/412814-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 Report Card for Cunningham.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Cunningham is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2020 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 6, 2015 to Dec 28, 2020. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Cunningham was the primary sponsor of 6 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 8483 (116th): Pandemic Assistance for Student Veterans Act of 2020
- H.R. 7811 (116th): To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a reduction in loan fees for certain veterans affected by major disasters.
- H.R. 7092 (116th): Great American Outdoors Act
- H.R. 4771 (116th): VA Tele-Hearing Modernization Act
- H.R. 3648 (116th): Defense Access Road Enhancement Act
- H.R. 2982 (116th): Women Veterans Health Care Accountability Act
Does 6 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
Cunningham sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Armed Forces and National Security (56%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (19%) Energy (12%) Health (12%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Cunningham recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 8919 (116th): eVIP Mail Service for Veterans Act
- H.R. 8483 (116th): Pandemic Assistance for Student Veterans Act of 2020
- H.R. 8212 (116th): ECHO Act
- H.R. 7811 (116th): To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a reduction …
- H.R. 7092 (116th): Great American Outdoors Act
- H.R. 6967 (116th): To require the Secretary of Defense to provide to certain members of …
- H.R. 6439 (116th): Hazard Pay Expansion Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2019 to Dec 2020, Cunningham missed 14 of 954 roll call votes, which is 1.5%. This is better than the median of 2.3% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2020. 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
- Office of the Clerk, House of Representatives for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
