Sen. Claiborne Pell

Former Senator from Rhode Island

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1961-1996	Senator	Rhode Island

Sponsorship Analysis

Pell was a far-left Democrat according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship from Pell’s time serving in the Senate.

Use this chart to compare Pell to other members of the Senate in the 104^th Congress on leadership and ideology.

This chart is based on principal components analysis for ideology and PageRank for leadership. See analysis methodology.

Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Some of Pell’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1961 to Oct 1996, Pell missed 1,090 of 14,172 roll call votes, which is 7.7%. This is worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Oct 1996. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1961 Jan-Apr	30	1	3.3%	67^th
1961 May-Aug	135	5	3.7%	67^th
1961 Sep-Sep	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jan-Mar	21	1	4.8%	67^th
1962 Apr-Jun	61	6	9.8%	67^th
1962 Jul-Sep	121	10	8.3%	67^th
1962 Oct-Oct	17	1	5.9%	67^th
1963 Jan-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	69	2	2.9%	40^th
1963 Jul-Sep	52	16	30.8%	80^th
1963 Oct-Dec	86	5	5.8%	40^th
1964 Jan-Mar	54	1	1.9%	60^th
1964 Apr-Jun	132	2	1.5%	60^th
1964 Jul-Sep	103	5	4.9%	40^th
1964 Oct-Oct	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	31	2	6.5%	40^th
1965 Apr-Jun	99	11	11.1%	80^th
1965 Jul-Sep	106	6	5.7%	60^th
1965 Oct-Oct	10	2	20.0%	60^th
1966 Jan-Mar	27	1	3.7%	20^th
1966 Apr-Jun	56	8	14.3%	40^th
1966 Jul-Sep	119	6	5.0%	60^th
1966 Oct-Oct	35	11	31.4%	80^th
1967 Jan-Mar	53	5	9.4%	29^th
1967 Apr-Jun	65	5	7.7%	14^th
1967 Jul-Sep	78	22	28.2%	71^st
1967 Oct-Dec	110	1	0.9%	14^th
1968 Jan-Mar	68	21	30.9%	86^th
1968 Apr-Jun	94	4	4.3%	14^th
1968 Jul-Sep	82	9	11.0%	29^th
1968 Oct-Oct	27	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	1	6.3%	80^th
1969 Apr-Jun	24	2	8.3%	50^th
1969 Jul-Sep	44	1	2.3%	40^th
1969 Oct-Dec	152	8	5.3%	10^th
1970 Jan-Mar	100	8	8.0%	30^th
1970 Apr-Jun	89	16	18.0%	70^th
1970 Jul-Sep	119	21	17.6%	50^th
1970 Oct-Dec	105	38	36.2%	70^th
1971 Feb-Mar	25	4	16.0%	27^th
1971 Apr-Jun	88	10	11.4%	36^th
1971 Jul-Sep	108	18	16.7%	73^rd
1971 Oct-Dec	200	8	4.0%	18^th
1972 Jan-Mar	119	7	5.9%	36^th
1972 Apr-Jun	127	36	28.3%	91^st
1972 Jul-Sep	198	99	50.0%	91^st
1972 Oct-Oct	66	37	56.1%	82^nd
1973 Jan-Mar	67	1	1.5%	13^th
1973 Apr-Jun	190	11	5.8%	38^th
1973 Jul-Sep	165	3	1.8%	44^th
1973 Oct-Dec	168	16	9.5%	56^th
1974 Jan-Mar	93	1	1.1%	19^th
1974 Apr-Jun	177	10	5.6%	38^th
1974 Jul-Sep	138	9	6.5%	38^th
1974 Oct-Dec	132	4	3.0%	25^th
1975 Jan-Mar	116	11	9.5%	75^th
1975 Apr-Jun	140	9	6.4%	20^th
1975 Jul-Sep	167	12	7.2%	55^th
1975 Oct-Dec	180	16	8.9%	50^th
1976 Jan-Mar	102	5	4.9%	55^th
1976 Apr-Jun	263	36	13.7%	80^th
1976 Jul-Sep	313	29	9.3%	40^th
1976 Oct-Oct	13	8	61.5%	60^th
1977 Jan-Mar	92	3	3.3%	20^th
1977 Apr-Jun	178	20	11.2%	68^th
1977 Jul-Sep	233	14	6.0%	56^th
1977 Oct-Dec	132	12	9.1%	48^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	2	2.6%	8^th
1978 Apr-Jun	119	16	13.4%	80^th
1978 Jul-Sep	235	34	14.5%	68^th
1978 Oct-Oct	85	4	4.7%	44^th
1979 Feb-Mar	32	3	9.4%	73^rd
1979 Apr-Jun	121	16	13.2%	78^th
1979 Jul-Sep	170	21	12.4%	76^th
1979 Oct-Dec	183	12	6.6%	41^st
1980 Jan-Mar	67	3	4.5%	41^st
1980 Apr-Jun	216	50	23.1%	92^nd
1980 Jul-Sep	178	4	2.2%	27^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	14	16.7%	70^th
1981 Jan-Mar	57	1	1.8%	41^st
1981 Apr-Jun	124	5	4.0%	66^th
1981 Jul-Sep	119	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Oct-Dec	189	8	4.2%	41^st
1982 Feb-Mar	77	5	6.5%	70^th
1982 Apr-Jun	127	7	5.5%	61^st
1982 Jul-Sep	174	1	0.6%	27^th
1982 Oct-Dec	86	14	16.3%	91^st
1983 Feb-Mar	54	1	1.9%	37^th
1983 Apr-Jun	121	12	9.9%	87^th
1983 Jul-Sep	92	6	6.5%	72^nd
1983 Oct-Nov	101	0	0.0%	0^th
1984 Jan-Mar	45	1	2.2%	33^rd
1984 Apr-Jun	144	12	8.3%	67^th
1984 Jul-Sep	67	5	7.5%	74^th
1984 Oct-Oct	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Jan-Mar	22	1	4.5%	60^th
1985 Apr-Jun	116	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Jul-Sep	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Oct-Dec	182	11	6.0%	75^th
1986 Jan-Mar	51	1	2.0%	42^nd
1986 Apr-Jun	103	4	3.9%	65^th
1986 Jul-Sep	149	3	2.0%	54^th
1986 Oct-Oct	56	5	8.9%	90^th
1987 Jan-Mar	50	1	2.0%	35^th
1987 Apr-Jun	122	1	0.8%	32^nd
1987 Jul-Sep	120	6	5.0%	62^nd
1987 Oct-Dec	127	4	3.1%	43^rd
1988 Jan-Mar	84	2	2.4%	10^th
1988 Apr-Jun	136	10	7.4%	83^rd
1988 Jul-Sep	127	7	5.5%	72^nd
1988 Oct-Oct	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	77	2	2.6%	68^th
1989 Jul-Sep	118	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Oct-Nov	91	8	8.8%	92^nd
1990 Jan-Mar	48	1	2.1%	62^nd
1990 Apr-Jun	95	4	4.2%	76^th
1990 Jul-Sep	114	7	6.1%	93^rd
1990 Oct-Oct	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jan-Mar	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Apr-Jun	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jul-Sep	96	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Oct-Nov	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jan-Mar	61	1	1.6%	59^th
1992 Apr-Jun	74	10	13.5%	93^rd
1992 Jul-Sep	117	3	2.6%	51^st
1992 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Feb-Mar	93	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Apr-Jun	99	3	3.0%	64^th
1993 Jul-Sep	109	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Oct-Nov	94	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Jan-Mar	86	1	1.2%	38^th
1994 Apr-Jun	92	1	1.1%	37^th
1994 Jul-Sep	136	4	2.9%	62^nd
1994 Oct-Dec	15	1	6.7%	76^th
1995 Jan-Mar	125	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Apr-Jun	171	13	7.6%	96^th
1995 Jul-Sep	184	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Oct-Dec	133	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Jan-Mar	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Apr-Jun	122	2	1.6%	74^th
1996 Jul-Sep	121	3	2.5%	78^th
1996 Oct-Oct	3	0	0.0%	0^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
Congressional Biographical Directory for elected positions
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
THOMAS, for sponsored bills

Recent Legislative Activity

Elections and Offices

Sen. Claiborne Pell [D-RI, 1961-1996] leaves office as Senator from Rhode Island

Oct 04, 1996

Elections and Offices

Sen. Claiborne Pell [D-RI, 1961-1996] takes office as Senator from Rhode Island

Jan 03, 1961