Rep. Brian Higgins
Former Representative for New York’s 26th District
pronounced BRĪ-in // HIH-ginz
![Photo of Rep. Brian Higgins [D-NY26, 2013-2024]](/static/legislator-photos/400641-200px.jpeg)
Earmarks
Higgins proposed $19 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:
- $5 million to US Army Corps of Engineers for “Black Rock Lock and Tonawanda Harbor – Bird Island Pier”
- $2.6 million to Niagara County Sheriff's Office for “Niagara County Law Enforcement Portable Radio Replacement”
- $2.0 million to Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority for “The Riverline - The Del Woodlands”
View all requests and justifications on Higgins’s website »
View analysis and download spreadsheet from Demand Progress Education Fund »
These are earmark requests which may or may not survive the legislative process to becoming law. Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Across representatives who requested earmarks, the median total amount requested for this fiscal year was $39 million.
Earmarks are federal expenditures, tax benefits, or tariff benefits requested by a legislator for a specific entity. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. All earmark requests in the House of Representatives are published online for the public to review. We don’t have earmark requests for senators. The fiscal year begins on October 1 of the prior calendar year. Source: Appropriations.house.gov. Background: Earmark Disclosure Rules in the House
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Higgins 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 Higgins has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to May 24, 2024. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Higgins was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 2142 (117th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 170 Manhattan Avenue in Buffalo, New York, as the “Indiana Hunt-Martin Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 3556 (112th): To designate the new United States courthouse in Buffalo, New York, as the “Robert H. Jackson United States Courthouse”.
- H.R. 918 (111th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 300 East 3rd Street in Jamestown, New York, as the “Stan Lundine Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 6318 (110th): To designate a portion of United States Route 20A, located in Orchard Park, New York, as the “Timothy J. Russert Highway”.
- H.R. 3339 (109th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2061 South Park Avenue in Buffalo, New York, as the “James T. Molloy Post Office …
Does 5 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 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Higgins sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (38%) Taxation (22%) Social Welfare (12%) Armed Forces and National Security (12%) Government Operations and Politics (5%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (5%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Higgins recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5593: To amend the Trade Act of 1974 to exempt from the Generalized System …
- H.R. 5408: SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act
- H.R. 4788: Opioid Treatment Providers Act
- H.R. 4286: Increasing Access to Lung Cancer Screening Act
- H.R. 3498: HELP Act of 2023
- H.R. 1402: Boxing Therapy for Parkinson’s Access Act of 2023
- H.R. 604: Make NEXUS Work Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2005 to Feb 2024, Higgins missed 465 of 12,792 roll call votes, which is 3.6%. This is worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Feb 2024. 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.
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
