Rep. Gus Bilirakis
Representative for Florida’s 12th District
pronounced guss // bil-uh-RA-kuss
Bilirakis is the representative for Florida’s 12th congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. He has served since Jan. 3, 2013. Bilirakis is next up for reelection in 2026 and serves until Jan. 3, 2027. He is 62 years old.
He was previously the representative for Florida’s 9th congressional district as a Republican from 2007 to 2012.
Our work to hold Congress accountable only matters if elections are decided by counting votes. After the 2020 Presidential Election, President Trump, his advisors and associates, and Republican legislators collaborated in a failed coup to have the election decided by themselves rather than by voters.
Bilirakis was among the Republican legislators who participated in this. Shortly after the election, Bilirakis joined a case before the Supreme Court calling for all the votes for president in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — states that were narrowly won by Democrats — to be discarded, in order to change the outcome of the election. In the case, Republicans proffered lies and a novel legal theory which the Supreme Court rejected. (Following the rejection of several related cases before the Supreme Court, another legislator who joined the case called for violence.)
In 2023, Trump associates and top advisors pleaded guilty to submitting a fraudulent slate of electors to Congress from Georgia, making false statements about purported widespread fraud in the election, and tampering with voting machines after the election, admitted in civil court to posing as fake electors in Wisconsin, and were convicted of contempt of Congress for withholding documents during its investigation and assaulting police officers at the Capitol. Trump associates and top advisors are also currently facing charges for submitting fraudulent slates of electors to Congress in Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, and Wisconsin. Trump himself faces related criminal charges in state court, and a federal investigation which terminated because he won re-election alleged that Trump sought to ignore true vote counts, manufactured fraudulent slates of presidential electors, and used the January 6 riot to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election. Trump was impeached but not convicted in 2021 for incitement of insurrection related to the same events. (He was also impeached but not convicted of using the presidency to solicit the help of a foreign government to benefit his reelection in 2019, and he was convicted in state court in 2024 for falsifying business records to cover up acts that he believed might have hurt him in the 2016 election.) The January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol, led on the front lines by militant white supremacy groups one member of which was convicted of sedition, attempted to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office by disrupting Congress’s count of electors.
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2024 Report Card for Bilirakis.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Bilirakis 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. 4, 2021 to March 21, 2025. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Rep. Gus Bilirakis [R-FL12, 2013-2026] sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Bilirakis was the primary sponsor of 21 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 1823 (118th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 207 East Fort Dade Avenue in Brooksville, Florida, as the “Specialist Justin Dean Coleman Memorial …
- H.R. 7189 (118th): Congenital Heart Futures Reauthorization Act of 2024
- H.R. 2365 (118th): Dr. Emmanuel Bilirakis and Honorable Jennifer Wexton National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act
- H.R. 4551 (117th): RANSOMWARE Act
- H.R. 8299 (117th): To allow for devices with a predetermined change control plan to be marketed without submitting a supplemental application or premarket notification if the changes to such devices …
- H.R. 5151 (117th): Col. James Floyd Turner IV U.S.M.C. GI Bill Transfer Act of 2021
- H.R. 4255 (117th): FAIR Crash Tests Act
Does 21 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
Bilirakis sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (46%) Armed Forces and National Security (16%) Science, Technology, Communications (15%) Commerce (6%) International Affairs (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Bilirakis recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 2102: To amend title 10, United States Code, to provide for concurrent receipt of …
- H.R. 1517: Prevent Interruptions in Physical Therapy Act of 2025
- H.R. 1518: New Era of Preventing End-Stage Kidney Disease Act
- H.R. 1402: TICKET Act
- H.R. 1403: LIVE Beneficiaries Act
- H.R. 1282: Eliminate DEI in Colleges Act
- H.R. 1283: Protecting Our Children in an AI World Act of 2025
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2007 to Mar 2025, Bilirakis missed 281 of 12,140 roll call votes, which is 2.3%. This is on par with the median of 1.9% 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 absences, 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