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Sen. Daniel Akaka

Former Senator for Hawaii


Akaka was a senator from Hawaii and was a Democrat. He served from 1990 to 2012.

He was previously the representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district as a Democrat from 1977 to 1990.

Photo of Sen. Daniel Akaka [D-HI, 1990-2012]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Akaka is shown as a purple triangle in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2013 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 Akaka sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2007 to Jan 2, 2013. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

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

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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 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Akaka sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (33%) Government Operations and Politics (25%) Native Americans (8%) Health (8%) Finance and Financial Sector (8%) Labor and Employment (6%) Education (6%) Economics and Public Finance (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Akaka recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Akaka voted Nay

Akaka voted Nay

Conference Report Agreed to 75/20 on Feb 6, 2012.

Akaka voted Yea

Conference Report Agreed to 86/13 on Dec 15, 2011.

Akaka voted Yea

Akaka voted Yea

Motion Agreed to 81/19 on Dec 15, 2010.

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111–312, H.R. 4853, 124 Stat. 3296, enacted December 17, 2010), also known …

Akaka voted Yea

Missed Votes

From May 1990 to Jan 2013, Akaka missed 183 of 7,503 roll call votes, which is 2.4%. This is on par with the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Jan 2013. 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.

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Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: