Sen. William Cohen

Former Senator from Maine

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1979-1996	Senator	Maine
1973-1978	Representative	Maine's 2^nd District

Sponsorship Analysis

Cohen was a centrist Republican according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship from Cohen’s time serving in the Senate.

Use this chart to compare Cohen 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 Cohen’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Feb 1979 to Oct 1996, Cohen missed 263 of 7,037 roll call votes, which is 3.7%. 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
1979 Feb-Mar	32	2	6.3%	49^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	6	5.0%	49^th
1979 Jul-Sep	170	6	3.5%	24^th
1979 Oct-Dec	183	12	6.6%	41^st
1980 Jan-Mar	67	2	3.0%	27^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	26	12.0%	65^th
1980 Jul-Sep	178	8	4.5%	49^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	26	31.0%	92^nd
1981 Jan-Mar	57	4	7.0%	77^th
1981 Apr-Jun	123	11	8.9%	89^th
1981 Jul-Sep	121	5	4.1%	61^st
1981 Oct-Dec	192	6	3.1%	20^th
1982 Feb-Mar	77	1	1.3%	27^th
1982 Apr-Jun	127	1	0.8%	16^th
1982 Jul-Sep	175	5	2.9%	57^th
1982 Oct-Dec	86	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Feb-Mar	54	2	3.7%	54^th
1983 Apr-Jun	121	2	1.7%	28^th
1983 Jul-Sep	92	7	7.6%	74^th
1983 Oct-Nov	101	7	6.9%	57^th
1984 Jan-Mar	45	3	6.7%	61^st
1984 Apr-Jun	144	8	5.6%	48^th
1984 Jul-Sep	68	5	7.4%	59^th
1984 Oct-Oct	35	4	11.4%	74^th
1985 Jan-Mar	22	1	4.5%	60^th
1985 Apr-Jun	116	12	10.3%	96^th
1985 Jul-Sep	60	4	6.7%	67^th
1985 Oct-Dec	183	8	4.4%	58^th
1986 Jan-Mar	51	3	5.9%	69^th
1986 Apr-Jun	103	3	2.9%	58^th
1986 Jul-Sep	149	6	4.0%	79^th
1986 Oct-Oct	56	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jan-Mar	50	5	10.0%	83^rd
1987 Apr-Jun	123	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jul-Sep	120	5	4.2%	53^rd
1987 Oct-Dec	127	1	0.8%	12^th
1988 Jan-Mar	84	5	6.0%	37^th
1988 Apr-Jun	136	5	3.7%	50^th
1988 Jul-Sep	127	2	1.6%	23^rd
1988 Oct-Oct	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	77	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jul-Sep	118	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Oct-Nov	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jan-Mar	48	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Apr-Jun	95	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jul-Sep	114	0	0.0%	0^th
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	0	0.0%	0^th
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	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Jul-Sep	109	4	3.7%	80^th
1993 Oct-Nov	94	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Jan-Mar	86	9	10.5%	85^th
1994 Apr-Jun	92	3	3.3%	75^th
1994 Jul-Sep	136	4	2.9%	62^nd
1994 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jan-Mar	125	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Apr-Jun	171	1	0.6%	23^rd
1995 Jul-Sep	184	1	0.5%	30^th
1995 Oct-Dec	133	8	6.0%	94^th
1996 Jan-Mar	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Apr-Jun	122	3	2.5%	81^st
1996 Jul-Sep	121	7	5.8%	90^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. William Cohen [R-ME, 1979-1996] leaves office as Senator from Maine

Oct 04, 1996

Elections and Offices

Sen. William Cohen [R-ME, 1979-1996] takes office as Senator from Maine

Jan 15, 1979

Elections and Offices

Sen. William Cohen [R-ME, 1979-1996] leaves office as Representative for Maine's 2nd congressional district

Oct 15, 1978

Elections and Offices

Sen. William Cohen [R-ME, 1979-1996] takes office as Representative for Maine's 2nd congressional district

Jan 03, 1973