As of July 6, 2018, Roskam had voted with his party in 92.6% of votes in the
115th Congress – ranking him #112 of 429 in voting against his party – and voted in line with President Trump's position in 94% of the votes. When it comes to co-sponsoring legislation Roskam was ranked number 153rd in bipartisanship in the House for the 114th Congress and 25th in the first year of the 115th Congress, according to the Bipartisan Index published by
The Lugar Center and
Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy.
FiveThirtyEight ranked Roskam as the tenth-most partisan Trump supporter in the House when compared to his district's voting patterns.
Environment In 2006, Roskam called climate science "
junk science". The League of Conservation Voters gave Roskam an environmental rating of 3% for 2017 and a lifetime rating of 7%. As an Illinois state legislator he received a 67% rating in 2005 from the Illinois Environmental Council. In 2004 he had scored 100%, while in 2003 he had scored 40%. In 2018, he joined the House
Climate Solutions Caucus, explaining: "It is incumbent upon each and every one of us to understand the impacts and challenges that come from a changing climate. The Climate Solutions Caucus is a bipartisan venue to enact common sense solutions." Later that year Roskam voted to oppose a tax on carbon emissions. In doing so, he opposed the Republican co-chair of the Climate Solutions Caucus, who announced plans for a bill substituting a
carbon tax for existing gasoline and fuel taxes.
Gun policy He received an endorsement from the
National Rifle Association of America (NRA) for being a supporter of
gun rights. On July 15, 2006, Roskam was the featured guest at an NRA support rally for him in
Addison, Illinois. In 2018, his rating was downgraded from 93% to 53% and he was not endorsed for re-election.
Health care In his first year in Congress, Roskam secured "more than $50 million federal dollars…to expand health care facilities and programs and improve traffic congestion." This included $195,000 to fund the expansion of the new emergency room at Adventist GlenOaks Hospital in
Glendale Heights and $243,000 to expand mental health programs at the Access Community Health Network's Martin T. Russo Family Health Center in
Bloomingdale. On September 25, 2007, Roskam voted with the majority of his party against expanding the
State Children's Health Insurance Program. The bill passed Congress but was vetoed by President Bush. On January 12, 2007, Roskam voted with the majority of his party against the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act, which would require the
Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower covered
Part D drug prices on behalf of
Medicare beneficiaries. Roskam was in favor of repealing the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare). On May 4, 2017, he voted to repeal and replace it with the
American Health Care Act. Roskam was against the ObamaCare's health insurance tax. In July 2018, the House passed a measure meant to delay the tax "for two years and expand
Health savings accounts". Referring to the measure, he stated it "is a flawed tax that gets passed onto American families".
Social Security According to a direct mailing by the
National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Roskam will protect Social Security by opposing any plans that reduce benefits. Roskam told
The Hill that he opposes any measures that would add private savings accounts or slice up the current program to create a private account. However, Roskam responded to a
National Taxpayers Union questionnaire stating he would "work and vote for Social Security Choice that will allow younger workers to have the choice of investing much of their Social Security taxes in regulated individual retirement accounts."
Economic issues Roskam supported the
Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). On February 17, 2012,
National Review ran an essay in which Roskam and
Kevin McCarthy criticized President Obama's stimulus package, the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which Obama said would "save or create 3.5 million jobs." Three years later, however, the American economy was "down more than 1.1 million jobs and the national unemployment rate still hasn’t dropped below 8 percent." Roskam advocates making permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and has sponsored or cosponsored fourteen pieces of legislation for lower taxes, including child tax credits and reducing the income tax, and has stated support for a research and development tax credit. As an Illinois General Assembly legislator, Roskam authored and supported several pieces of tax reduction legislation.
Americans for Tax Reform named Roskam "Hero of the Taxpayer" in 2005 for his opposition to HB-755 which would have raised income and sales taxes by 67% or nearly $7 billion. In 2010, he signed a pledge sponsored by
Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes. Roskam voted in favor of the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, saying that the middle class was crumbling under the current tax code.
Technology Roskam voted to express "congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to 'Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services'" – the measure passed in a 215–205 decision on March 28, 2017. Passage is an attempt to roll back the regulation initiated by the Obama administration that would have required internet service providers (e.g., Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T) to obtain individual consumers' approval to sell personal data (e.g., internet usage and web history) to marketers and other such data-buyers.
Energy In March 2007, Roskam announced a $3 million
Department of Energy grant to the
Des Plaines–based
Gas Technology Institute (GTI). In June 2007, Roskam supported a bill (H. R. 2619) to authorize $2.5 million per year for 2009–2011 to establish and operate an
ethanol anti-idling power unit research program. Roskam noted that GTI would be eligible for the grant as would any other 501(c)(3) organization that "has performed energy-related research." No further action was taken on the bill in 2007 after it was referred to Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation in mid June. Later, Roskam voted against legislation boosting automobile fuel economy requirements to an industry average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The bill also encouraged the use of renewable fuels. On June 24, 2008, Roskam voted against H.R. 6346: The Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act. The bill failed when it was voted on following a suspension of normal rules to stop debate and it required a 2/3 vote to pass. Opponents of the bill posit that price gouging is not widespread and that it is difficult to prove that it occurred. Roskam stated he voted against the bill as a protection of the free market. Roskam, with Rep.
John Shimkus, proposed the Energy VISION Act, which would seek to end America's reliance on foreign energy within 15 years. According to the
Baltimore Sun, "The plan mixes conservation and alternative fuel production with aggressive domestic energy exploration, including drilling offshore and in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and opening vast swaths of land to oil shale development."
Infrastructure Roskam helped to pass the Safe American Roads Act of 2007, which prohibits the
U.S. Department of Transportation from granting Mexican trucks access beyond the U.S./Mexico commercial zone until the department complies with the safety and security regulations Congress has already enacted. On July 1, 2008, Roskam announced plans to introduce legislation preventing the acquisition of the
EJ&E Railway by the
CN Railway by designating "a 36-mile stretch of the EJ&E as a Corridor for Inter-Suburban Commuter Rail" for use in
Metra's
STAR line. He introduced H.R. 6476 on July 10, 2008, with co-sponsors
Judy Biggert and
Donald A. Manzullo. Roskam has stated that this would be the nation's first suburb-to-suburb
commuter rail line.
Immigration In interviews on
National Public Radio, Roskam stated his opposition to the Senate's
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and stated support for the House
immigration reform bill, H.R. 4437 the
Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. During the interviews he said that his constituency did not support amnesty and wanted stronger border security. When U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to suspend the
U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and suspend the entry of foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, Roskam said the "implementation was bumpy" but that he supported "the underlying theme."
Social issues Roskam opposed
abortion except in cases where the life of the mother is at risk, making no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Roskam opposed
same-sex marriage. Roskam supported
adult and
umbilical cord stem cell research. He had argued against
embryonic stem cell research in the Illinois Senate, even if privately funded, and voted against the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act in Congress.
Foreign policy Israel In March 2016, the Israeli newspaper
Arutz Sheva described Roskam's long-term efforts to combat the
BDS movement, which he described as "an insidious effort to marginalize Israel" and "part of a longer-term strategy for people not to protest against Israel, but people that actually want Israel destroyed." Roskam noted a law that "makes BDS an issue in America's trade policy, not just Israel's" by ensuring that American "trade negotiators are doing everything they can to push back against European BDS in particular." Roskam complained, however, that the Obama White House had "given mixed signals" on Israel. In April 2018, Roskam and
Grace Meng (D-NY) wrote a letter requesting $500 million for U.S.–Israeli defense cooperation, including $70 million for the
Iron Dome missile defense system. Roskam said that "US–Israel missile defense cooperation is a critical investment in the safety and security of Israel and stability in the Middle East."
Hezbollah In a March 2016 letter to the
EU ambassador in Washington,
David O’Sullivan, Roskam and Grace Meng (D-NY) asked that the EU label
Hezbollah's political wing a terrorist organization. "While the 2013 EU designation of Hezbollah’s military wing was a step in the right direction," they wrote, "distinguishing between Hezbollah’s military and political arms is a distinction without a difference."
Iran In July 2010, Roskam and Democratic fellow Illinois congressman
Mike Quigley introduced a House resolution condemning Iranian textbooks that "applaud martyrdom and contain anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and anti-Western passages aimed at radicalizing students." Roskam was an adamant opponent of the 2015
internal nuclear agreement with Iran, saying that he viewed it as important to fight the agreement in every possible way. He and then-fellow U.S. Representative
Mike Pompeo successfully pressured House Republican leadership to hold a vote on whether to approve the Iran agreement, rather than an originally planned vote on a "resolution of disapproval" against the agreement, in a bid to "force Democrats to assert their support for the contentious accord, a vote Republicans hope will be more politically costly than the originally planned vote on a resolution disapproving of the nuclear deal."
Qatar Roskam wanted the U.S. government to hold accountable Qatar for its support of Hamas. He had appealed to the Obama administration for support. He joined the U.S. Treasury Department in his criticism. On July 31, 2014, Roskam joined Secretary of State
John Kerry and Treasury Secretary
Jack Lew to urge the Obama administration to end the United States partnership with
Qatar. Roskam, Kerry and Lew cited Qatar's support of
Hamas as one of the primary reasons. Roskam cited an article published by
The New York Times, which accused Qatar's emir of pledging $400 million in financial aid to Hamas in October 2012. In December 2014, Roskam and Sherman requested new sanctions on Qatar in a letter to Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew. They also asked for a detailed accounting of public and private financing from within Qatar for Hamas,
Al-Qaeda, the
Islamic State, and the
al-Nusra Front.
Cuba Roskam opposed the
normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations, accusing the Obama administration of "appeasement" and saying that the restoration of American-Cuban relations "rewards and legitimizes the Castros' decades of repressive, dictatorial rule." He criticized the 2014 agreement that led to the release of U.S. government contractor
Alan Gross from Cuban captivity in exchange for the release of
three Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. for espionage, calling it a "dangerous mistake."
Kosovo In February 2017, Roskam led a bipartisan House delegation that visited Kosovo to reiterate American support for that country.
Iraq War On September 21, 2006, Roskam said that the U.S. should "
stay the course" and that U.S. troops should not return home until Iraq is safe. ==Post-congressional career==