Sen. Christopher Dodd

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Dodd is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2010 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 Dodd sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 24, 2005 to Dec 22, 2010. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Dodd was the primary sponsor of 45 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 4036 (111th): A bill to clarify the National Credit Union Administration authority to make stabilization fund expenditures without borrowing from the Treasury.
• S. 3817 (111th): CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010
• S. 2799 (111th): Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2009
• S. 1739 (111th): Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act of 2009
• S. 1677 (111th): Defense Production Act Reauthorization of 2009
• S. 1533 (111th): Public Transportation Extension Act of 2009
• S. 896 (111th): Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009

View All »

Does 45 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Dodd sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (19%) Education (15%) Economics and Public Finance (15%) Health (13%) Social Welfare (11%) Families (10%) Science, Technology, Communications (9%) Law (8%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Dodd recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 4043 (111th): Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act Reauthorization of 2010
• S. 4044 (111th): Combating Autism Reauthorization Act of 2010
• S. 4036 (111th): A bill to clarify the National Credit Union Administration authority to make …
• S. 4027 (111th): Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act
• S. 3968 (111th): Children’s Act of 2010
• S. 3907 (111th): Debbie Blanchard Access to Health Care for Individuals With Disabilities Act of …
• S. 3897 (111th): National Commission on Children and Disasters Reauthorization Act of 2010

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 1981 to Dec 2010, Dodd missed 650 of 10,588 roll call votes, which is 6.1%. This is much worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2010. 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.

Show the numbers...

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
• 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
• Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills