Rep. Jim Costa

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Costa 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 Dec 10, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Jim Costa sits on the following committees:

• House Committee on Agriculture
  • Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry subcommittee Ranking Member

  Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development subcommittees
• House Committee on Foreign Affairs
  Europe subcommittees

Enacted Legislation

Costa was the primary sponsor of 6 bills that were enacted:

• H.R. 9043 (117th): Respect for Child Survivors Act
• H.R. 6023 (117th): Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp Reauthorization Act of 2021
• H.R. 7419 (117th): Victims of Child Abuse Act Reauthorization Act of 2022
• H.R. 4389 (112th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 19 East Merced Street in Fowler, California, as the “Cecil E. Bolt Post Office”.
• H.R. 3754 (110th): To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to accept, as part of a settlement, diesel emission reduction Supplemental Environmental Projects, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 4122 (110th): American Investment in Safe, Reliable High-Speed Rail Act

View All »

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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Costa sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (19%) International Affairs (14%) Crime and Law Enforcement (14%) Water Resources Development (12%) Agriculture and Food (12%) Energy (12%) Commerce (10%) Immigration (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Costa recently introduced the following legislation:

• H.R. 10210: National Plan for Epilepsy Act
• H.R. 10140: To authorize additional funding for the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act.
• H.Res. 1520: Expressing support for the designation of October 8, 2024, as “National Hydrogen and …
• H.R. 9814: Rural Homeownership Continuity Act of 2024
• H.R. 9305: To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to …
• H.R. 9038: FAIR Fleets Act
• H.Res. 1349: Recognizing the continued success of the Food for Peace Act.

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2005 to Dec 2024, Costa missed 722 of 13,258 roll call votes, which is 5.4%. This is much worse than 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.

Show the numbers...

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