Quillen first voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on February 10, 1964, and again on July 2, 1964 when the bill came back to the U.S. House of Representatives for a final vote with an amendment attached to the original bill by the U.S. Senate.
In April 1971, U.S. Representative Olin Teague of Texas introduced a bill to create five medical schools in conjunction with established VA hospitals and U.S. Senator Alan Cranston of California introduced a companion bill within the U.S. Senate.