Rep. Christopher “Chris” Smith

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2018 Report Card for Smith.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Smith is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Smith has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Sep 20, 2019. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Christopher “Chris” Smith sits on the following committees:

• House Committee on Foreign Affairs
  • Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
  • Member, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, and Trade

Enacted Legislation

Smith was the primary sponsor of 58 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• H.R. 2200 (115th): Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2018
• H.R. 390 (115th): Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018
• H.R. 6651 (115th): PEPFAR Extension Act of 2018
• H.R. 3655 (115th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1300 Main Street in Belmar, New Jersey, as the “Dr. Walter S. McAfee Post Office ...
• H.R. 4221 (115th): Kevin and Avonte’s Law of 2017
• H.R. 1150 (114th): Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act
• H.R. 6482 (114th): Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act

View All »

Does 58 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

Smith sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (56%) Health (16%) Crime and Law Enforcement (9%)

Recent Bills

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

• H.R. 4145: Braeden’s Commission: Protect our Athletes from Exertional Heat Stroke
• H.R. 3520: Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2019
• H.R. 3460: End Neglected Tropical Diseases Act
• H.R. 3289: Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019
• H.R. 3262: Sami’s Law
• H.R. 3073: TICK Act
• H.R. 2783: TPS and DED Protection Act of 2019

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 1981 to Sep 2019, Smith missed 492 of 23,093 roll call votes, which is 2.1%. This is on par with the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. 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.

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
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills