Bruce Westerman

Overview

Bruce Westerman is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas with a substantial voting record of 525 recorded votes. His record reflects consistent conservative positions across most policy areas, with particularly strong support for energy and environment legislation, budget measures, taxation bills, and technology-related proposals. Westerman's voting patterns show near-unanimous support in several categories. He voted in favor of all criminal justice, technology, housing, and banking and finance bills that came before him. He also showed strong support for environment and energy measures (91.2% yea), taxation (90.9% yea), and budget legislation (85.7% yea). His highest opposition rates appeared in labor policy, where he voted against 80% of measures, and foreign policy, where he opposed 63.6% of the bills he voted on. On healthcare, Westerman's record is more mixed, with a 54.9% yea rate across 51 votes — his most-voted policy area outside the general category. His recent healthcare votes include opposing motions to recommit on Medicaid and health insurance premium legislation, which is consistent with his party's approach to those issues. In the areas of immigration and agriculture, he supported a majority of bills but showed selective opposition. Westerman's record on reproductive rights and civil rights is limited to one vote each, making it difficult to draw broad conclusions in those areas. His single recorded vote on reproductive rights was a nay, and his single civil rights vote was a yea.

Key Positions

• •Consistently supports energy and environment legislation, voting yea on 91.2% of 34 bills in this category. Recent votes include supporting the Ratepayer Protection Act and the Water Resources Development Act, as well as a resolution disapproving an EPA rule on California harbor craft emissions standards.
• •Voted in favor of all 13 criminal justice bills on record, indicating strong and consistent support for criminal justice legislation that reached the House floor.
• •Opposed 80% of labor-related bills (4 out of 5 nay votes), suggesting he frequently disagrees with labor legislation as it has been presented during his tenure.
• •Supported the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 but voted against the Take Care of America's Veterans Act and against a War Powers Resolution directing withdrawal of forces from Lebanon.
• •Voted yea on 90.9% of taxation bills (10 of 11), reflecting consistent support for the tax proposals brought to the floor.
• •Opposed 63.6% of foreign policy bills (7 of 11 nay votes), indicating he frequently votes against foreign policy measures, potentially reflecting a preference for more selective international engagement.
• •On healthcare, his most active policy area with 51 votes, he supported roughly 55% of bills. His recent votes include opposing motions to recommit on the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act and the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.
• •Supported all 10 technology-related bills and all 8 housing-related bills on record.