Tenure
On July 12, 2017, Quigley introduced H. R. 2884, "The Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act (COVFEFE Act)". The bill would require the National Archives to preserve and store social media posts by the President of the United States. It was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the same day, yet saw no further congressional action.
On September 30, 2023, Quigley was the sole Democrat to vote against Republican-introduced legislation to keep the U.S. government funded, citing its lack of aid to Ukraine. Quigley voted in favor of three military aid package supplementals for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan respectively in April 2024, along with most Democrats.
Quigley voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.
On July 5, 2024, Quigley called for Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 United States presidential election.
In May 2011, Quigley sponsored an amendment to the Patriot Act prohibiting the sale of weapons to people on the FBI's Terrorist Watch List. He believed that the Republican limitation of civil liberties under the Patriot Act contradicted their unwillingness to limit Second Amendment rights. The amendment came under fire from Republican Representatives James Sensenbrenner Jr. and Louie Gohmert, who argued that it would infringe on the Second Amendment rights of those mistakenly placed on the Terrorist Watch List. The bill failed on a party-line House Judiciary panel vote, 21–11.
In March 2021, Quigley announced his support for the Medicare for All Act of 2021, which sought to provide comprehensive benefits to each American, along with no-cost long-term care insurance for seniors..
A Sierra Club member since high school, Quigley initially joined politics because of his desire to help the environment through legislation. He has enacted this desire through supporting the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a 2009 bill to create an emissions trading plan which passed in the House of Representatives, but was defeated in the Senate.
Quigley is an author of the Federal Bird Safe Buildings Act, which he reintroduces each Congress. The legislation would require federal buildings to be constructed with bird-safe materials and features to reduce bird–window collisions. The proposal mirrors legislation Quigley authored as a Cook County commissioner in 2008, the first bird-safe building legislation in the United States.
Quigley has worked to improve healthcare and education opportunities for veterans. His district office is also known to make services available to veterans whenever they need it, such as helping one veteran receive medals that he had been waiting over 20 years to receive. In 2013, Quigley introduced a bill to the House to prevent veterans from entering into debt to pay for tuition before GI benefits are received. His hope was to provide greater educational opportunities to veterans with this bill.
Quigley supports reproductive rights, and voted against banning federal health coverage for abortions. He also supports federal funding for family planning and sex education, as well as creating more preventive steps to avoid unwanted pregnancies altogether.
Quigley supports LGBTQ rights, and showed his support in 2012 by participating in National Coming Out Day as a show of solidarity. He has called for the FDA to revoke its ban on allowing blood donations from gay and bisexual men.
In September 2014, Quigley was one of 69 members of Congress to sign a letter to then-FDA commissioner Sylvia Burwell requesting that the FDA revise its policy banning donation of corneas and other tissues by men who have had sex with another man in the preceding five years.
