Former representative · Texas's 34th district

Filemon Vela

Filemon Vela served in Congress from 2013 to 2022, last as a Democratic representative for Texas's 34th district. In the 117th Congress, 550 roll calls were held while they served; they missed 34, and cast 320 of 331 party-unity votes with the majority of their caucus.

Party
Democrat
Chamber
House
Former
In Congress since
Jan 3, 2013
Last term ended
Mar 31, 2022
Open in the Congress explorerOfficial record
Photo: Government Publishing Office (public domain)

Record by Congress

Counts with their denominators for each Congress and chamber served. Ranks are among members who served most of that Congress (100 or more roll calls): rank 1 did it most often. A description, not a grade.

CongressRoll callsMissedVotes with partySponsoredCosponsored across the aisle
117th CongressHouse of Representatives5506.2%34 of 550 · rank 23 of 44397%320 of 331 · rank 298 of 443190 became law11%21 of 190

Ideology (DW-NOMINATE)

Voteview's DW-NOMINATE first dimension estimates where members sit from all their roll calls: liberal (−1) to conservative (+1). It describes voting patterns, not views. Shown for the 117th Congress (House), with each party's median and the chamber's range.

Liberal −1−0.31+1 Conservative

Source: Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/

Votes against their party

The latest party-unity votes on bills and amendments where the member voted yea or nay against most of their caucus.

  1. H.R. 4521: United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021Yea
    Feb 4, 2022· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Agreed to 265–166· Against party
  2. H.R. 4521: United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021Yea
    Feb 3, 2022· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Agreed to 279–153· Against party
  3. H.R. 4521: United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021Nay
    Feb 3, 2022· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Failed 175–255· Against party
  4. H.R. 4521: United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021Yea
    Feb 3, 2022· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Agreed to 264–163· Against party
  5. H.R. 5314: Protecting Our Democracy ActNay
    Dec 9, 2021· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Failed 196–233· Against party
  6. H.R. 4350: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022Nay
    Sep 23, 2021· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Failed 142–286· Against party
  7. H.R. 4350: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022Nay
    Sep 23, 2021· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Failed 118–299· Against party
  8. H.R. 4350: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022Nay
    Sep 23, 2021· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Failed 198–231· Against party

Recent votes

The latest roll calls on bills and amendments, with the member's recorded position.

  1. H.R. 6833: Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023Yea
    Mar 31, 2022· House· Passage· On Passage· Passed 232–193
  2. S. 2126: A bill to designate the Federal Office Building located at 308 W. 21st Street in Cheyenne, Wyoming, as the "Louisa Swain Federal Office Building", and for other purposes.Yea
    Mar 30, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 412–1
  3. S. 1226: A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 1501 North 6th Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as the "Sylvia H. Rambo United States Courthouse", and for other purposes.Yea
    Mar 30, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 364–61
  4. S. 2938: Bipartisan Safer Communities ActYea
    Mar 30, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Failed 238–187
  5. H.R. 5547: CEDS ActYea
    Mar 30, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended· Passed 304–122
  6. H.R. 5343: FEMA Caseworker Accountability ActYea
    Mar 30, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended· Passed 409–17
  7. H.R. 5673: Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk Mitigation Technical Corrections ActYea
    Mar 30, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 402–24
  8. S. 400: William T. Coleman, Jr. and Norman Y. Mineta Department of Transportation Headquarters ActYea
    Mar 30, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended· Passed 417–4
  9. H.R. 5706: Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in Transportation ActYea
    Mar 30, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 339–85
  10. H.R. 4738: COVID–19 American History Project ActYea
    Mar 29, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended· Passed 376–47
  11. H.R. 3359: Homicide Victims' Families' Rights Act of 2021Yea
    Mar 29, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended· Passed 406–20
  12. S. 2629: Better Cybercrime Metrics ActYea
    Mar 29, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 377–48

Sponsored bills

Bills and resolutions the member introduced as sponsor in the loaded Congresses. Volume is not quality: most measures never leave committee.

19 sponsored · 0 became law

How far they got

  1. Introduced1895%
  2. Passed one chamber15.3%

Policy areas

  1. Taxation5
  2. Armed Forces and National Security3
  3. Transportation and Public Works2
  4. Agriculture and Food1
  5. Arts, Culture, Religion1
  6. Commerce1
  7. Education1
  8. Finance and Financial Sector1

Latest activity

  1. H.R. 268 To provide for the boundary of the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park to be adjusted, to authorize the donation of land to the United States for addition to that historic park, and for other purposes.
    Passed one chamber· Public Lands and Natural Resources· May 11, 2022
  2. H.R. 7052 To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1535 East Los Ebanos Boulevard in Brownsville, Texas, as the "1st Lieutenant Andres Zermeno Post Office Building".
    Introduced· Government Operations and Politics· Mar 9, 2022
  3. H.R. 6324 Saving America's Future by Educating Kids Act of 2021
    Introduced· Education· Dec 16, 2021
  4. H.R. 5907 Water Infrastructure for Rural and Impoverished Communities Act
    Introduced· Agriculture and Food· Nov 30, 2021
  5. H.R. 6053 Protect Minority Student Borrowers Act
    Introduced· Finance and Financial Sector· Nov 18, 2021
  6. H.R. 6013 Volunteer Driver Tax Appreciation Act of 2021
    Introduced· Taxation· Nov 17, 2021
  7. H.R. 5807 DATA Privacy Act
    Introduced· Commerce· Nov 2, 2021
  8. H.Res. 713 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Nation should honor and recognize military families who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
    Introduced· Armed Forces and National Security· Oct 8, 2021

Committees

Seats as published by the congress-legislators project. Past seats are those no longer listed since Analisa began recording them.

No committee seats are listed.

Federal contracts in the district

Contract obligations attributed to Texas's 34th district by each action's county and its award's ZIP code (land shares through census tracts); an estimate where ZIP codes cross district lines. Shown next to the member's record: neither explains the other.

Contract money is attributed to districts from the 118th Congress boundaries onward; this member's last district predates them.

Campaign money

What the member's campaigns reported receiving, per FEC two-year cycle, and the federal contracts of the organizations that sponsor the giving PACs (each sponsor matched to a contract recipient by AI, with its probability). Comparisons of public records: neither explains the other.

2024 cycle

Raised
$0
through Feb 23, 2023
Cash on hand
$0
From committees
$0
0 committees
From contractor PACs
$0
0 PACs · — of committee money

By cycle

CycleRaised (FEC summary)From committeesFrom contractor PACs
2024$0$0$00 PACs · — of committee money
2022$14.6K-$6,500-$2,0001 PACs · — of committee money

Raised is the FEC's cumulative summary of the candidacy; committee money counts each contribution reported, so the two cover slightly different dates.

Terms

Every term in the House or Senate, as published by the congress-legislators project.

  1. House · Texas's 34th districtJan 3, 2021 – Mar 31, 2022
  2. House · Texas's 34th districtJan 3, 2019 – Jan 3, 2021
  3. House · Texas's 34th districtJan 3, 2017 – Jan 3, 2019
  4. House · Texas's 34th districtJan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2017
  5. House · Texas's 34th districtJan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2015

Identifiers

The same member in other public records.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Congressional district boundaries and relationship files (U.S. Census Bureau)U.S. Census Bureau, Cartographic Boundary Files (congressional districts) and 2020 relationship files · release cd116+cd118+cd119 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Committees, candidates and committee contributions to candidates (Federal Election Commission)FEC bulk data: committee master, candidate master (candidates' names, no addresses), linkages, PAC summaries, all-candidates summaries and contributions from committees (no individual contributors) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov)USAspending.gov, prime award contract transactions (FPDS) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Activity counts describe volume and attendance; they are not a measure of quality.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.