President Barack Obama
Former President of the United States
Obama was President of the United States and was a Democrat. He served from 2009 to 2017.
He was previously a senator from Illinois as a Democrat from 2005 to 2008.
![Photo of President Barack Obama [D, 2009-2017]](/static/legislator-photos/400629-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Obama is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2008 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Obama sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 2003 to Dec 11, 2008. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Obama was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:
- S. 906 (110th): Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008
- S. 1513 (110th): Predominantly Black Institution Act of 2007
- S. 2125 (109th): Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006
- S. 3757 (109th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 950 Missouri Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois, as the “Katherine Dunham Post …
Does 4 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Obama sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (25%) Economics and Public Finance (13%) Science, Technology, Communications (12%) Law (12%) Commerce (10%) Health (10%) Labor and Employment (9%) Education (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Obama recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 3506 (110th): A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase …
- S.Con.Res. 96 (110th): A concurrent resolution commemorating Irena Sendler, a woman whose bravery saved the …
- S. 3358 (110th): Improving Food-borne Illness Surveillance and Response Act of 2008
- S.Res. 628 (110th): A resolution expressing support for the designation of Disability Pride Day and …
- S.Res. 600 (110th): A resolution commemorating the 44th anniversary of the deaths of civil rights …
- S. 3142 (110th): Preventing Stillbirth and SUID Act of 2008
- S. 3077 (110th): Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2005 to Oct 2008, Obama missed 314 of 1,300 roll call votes, which is 24.2%. This is much worse than the median of 2.2% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Oct 2008. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
