Former representative · California's 37th district

Karen Bass

Karen Bass served in Congress from 2011 to 2023, last as a Democratic representative for California's 37th district. In the 117th Congress, 965 roll calls were held while they served; they missed 19, and cast 545 of 547 party-unity votes with the majority of their caucus.

Party
Democrat
Chamber
House
Former
In Congress since
Jan 5, 2011
Last term ended
Jan 3, 2023
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 Representatives9652.0%19 of 965 · rank 137 of 443100%545 of 547 · rank 73 of 443410 became law5%37 of 673

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 −1−0.58+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. 7900: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023Nay
    Jul 13, 2022· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Agreed to 220–207· Against party
  2. H.R. 2543: Federal Reserve Racial and Economic Equity ActNay
    Jun 15, 2022· House· Amendments· On Agreeing to the Amendment· Agreed to 224–198· Against party

Recent votes

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

  1. S. 1617: Disaster Assistance for Rural Communities ActYea
    Dec 8, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 406–8
  2. H.Res. 1512: Providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 7776, with an amendment.Yea
    Dec 8, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree· Passed 350–80
  3. H.R. 8404: Respect for Marriage ActYea
    Dec 8, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendment· Passed 258–169
  4. H.R. 5796: Patents for Humanity Act of 2022Yea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· On the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Concur in the Senate Amendment· Passed 396–24
  5. S. 4834: PROTECT Our Children Act of 2022Yea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 421–1
  6. S. 2796: Rural Opioid Abuse Prevention ActYea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 408–11
  7. S. 3499: A bill to amend the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 to repeal certain obsolete requirements, and for other purposes.Yea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 424–1
  8. S. 3875: Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022Yea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 333–92
  9. H.R. 3462: SBA Cyber Awareness ActYea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· On the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Concur in the Senate Amendment· Passed 417–0
  10. S. 4052: Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act of 2022Yea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass· Passed 408–17
  11. MOTION: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass Certain BillsYea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· Passed 380–46
  12. H.R. 7946: Veteran Service Recognition Act of 2022Yea
    Dec 6, 2022· House· Passage· On Passage· Passed 220–208

Sponsored bills

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

41 sponsored · 0 became law

How far they got

  1. Introduced3585%
  2. Passed one chamber615%

Policy areas

  1. Crime and Law Enforcement10
  2. International Affairs10
  3. Families7
  4. Health4
  5. Arts, Culture, Religion1
  6. Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues1
  7. Commerce1
  8. Education1

Latest activity

  1. H.R. 7240 READ Act Reauthorization Act of 2022
    Passed one chamber· International Affairs· Dec 7, 2022
  2. H.R. 9431 Second Look Act of 2022
    Introduced· Crime and Law Enforcement· Dec 6, 2022
  3. H.R. 6878 Pregnant Women in Custody Act
    Passed one chamber· Crime and Law Enforcement· Dec 5, 2022
  4. H.R. 3372 One Stop Shop Community Reentry Program Act of 2021
    Passed one chamber· Crime and Law Enforcement· Dec 5, 2022
  5. H.R. 9364 Strengthening the AfCFTA Act of 2022
    Introduced· Foreign Trade and International Finance· Nov 30, 2022
  6. H.R. 8684 To extend by 19 days the authorization for the special assessment for the Domestic Trafficking Victims' Fund.
    Introduced· Crime and Law Enforcement· Nov 1, 2022
  7. H.R. 8637 Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training Act of 2022
    Introduced· Crime and Law Enforcement· Nov 1, 2022
  8. H.R. 8349 Children’s Safe Welcome Act of 2022
    Introduced· Immigration· Nov 1, 2022

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 California's 37th 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 Apr 15, 2024
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$675.3K$157.7K$30.5K13 PACs · 19% 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 · California's 37th districtJan 3, 2021 – Jan 3, 2023
  2. House · California's 37th districtJan 3, 2019 – Jan 3, 2021
  3. House · California's 37th districtJan 3, 2017 – Jan 3, 2019
  4. House · California's 37th districtJan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2017
  5. House · California's 37th districtJan 3, 2013 – Jan 3, 2015
  6. House · California's 33rd districtJan 5, 2011 – Jan 3, 2013

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.