Shays was the representative for Connecticut’s 4th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1987 to 2008.
![Photo of Rep. Christopher Shays [R-CT4, 1987-2008]](/static/legislator-photos/400370-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Shays is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives 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 Shays sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 2003 to Dec 10, 2008. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Shays was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 5150 (108th): National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004
- H.R. 3724 (108th): Energy Efficient Housing Technical Correction Act
- H.R. 2356 (107th): Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002
Does 3 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
Shays sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (24%) Law (13%) Armed Forces and National Security (12%) Economics and Public Finance (12%) Science, Technology, Communications (12%) Labor and Employment (10%) Crime and Law Enforcement (9%) International Affairs (8%)
Recent Bills
Some of Shays’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 7235 (110th): To amend the Federal Deposit Insurance Act the amount of deposits insured ...
- H.Res. 1522 (110th): Honoring the life, achievements, and contributions of Paul Newman.
- H.R. 7127 (110th): Total Learning Curriculum Implementation Act
- H.R. 6784 (110th): Home Heating Oil Assistance Act of 2008
- H.R. 6626 (110th): To authorize the Secretary of the Navy to repay Federal educational loans ...
- H.Res. 1289 (110th): Urging the President to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to work ...
- H.Con.Res. 334 (110th): Supporting the goals and objectives of a National Military Appreciation Month.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Sep 1987 to Dec 2008, Shays missed 287 of 12,648 roll call votes, which is 2.3%. This is on par with the median of 3.1% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 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 and major life events.
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
