Congress Stat: The 10 Most Absent Representatives in 2009 Are…
The following are the Top 10 Absentee members of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives during the course of 2009. These are the members of Congress who were most often missing from roll call votes:
1. RepublicanJ. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina – absent for 346 of the 991 roll-call votes in the House during the year 2009
2. Republican John Sullivan of Oklahoma – absent for 230 House roll-call votes
3. Democrat Pete Stark of California – absent for 219 votes
4. Democrat Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island- absent for 203 votes
5. Democrat Linda Sanchez of California – absent for 200 votes
6. Democrat John Lewis of Georgia – absent for 195 votes
7. Republican Nathan Deal of Georgia – absent for 182 votes
8. Democrat Mike Capuano of Massachusetts – absent for 173 votes
9. Republican George Radanovich of California – absent for 165 votes
10. Republican Gary Miller of California- absent for 162 votes
This top 10 in congressional absenteeism only counts current members of the House — those who have departed from the House aren’t counted because we’re interested in performance while on the job. House members who replaced departures (such as Judy Chu) don’t have the votes before they were sworn in counted against them, since they obviously couldn’t cast votes in those cases (Rep. Chu, by the way, has missed just 4 roll call votes since her swearing-in this summer).
