![Photo of Sen. Daniel Akaka [D-HI, 1990-2012]](/static/legislator-photos/300001-200px.jpeg)
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 liberal–conservative 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:
- S. 2170 (112th): Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012
- S. 1379 (112th): D.C. Courts and Public Defender Service Act of 2011
- S. 743 (112th): Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012
- S. 3447 (111th): Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010
- S. 3107 (111th): Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2010
- S. 707 (111th): Telework Enhancement Act of 2010
- S. 1963 (111th): Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010
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%)
Recent Bills
Some of Akaka’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S.Res. 624 (112th): A resolution relative to the death of the Honorable Daniel Ken Inouye, ...
- S. 3685 (112th): Department of the Interior Tribal Self-Governance Act of 2012
- S. 3676 (112th): Reducing Duplication Overseas Act of 2012
- S.Res. 602 (112th): A resolution designating 2012-2013 as the “Year of the Korean War Veteran” ...
- S.Res. 561 (112th): A resolution recognizing National Native American Heritage Month and celebrating the heritages ...
- S. 3548 (112th): Native American Veterans’ Memorial Amendments Act of 2012
- S. 3362 (112th): Dam Safety Act of 2012
Voting Record
Key Votes
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 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
