Daniel Moynihan, former Senator for New York

Moynihan was a senator from New York and was a Democrat. He served from 1977 to 2000.

Photo of Sen. Daniel Moynihan [D-NY, 1977-2000]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Moynihan is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2000 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 Moynihan sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1995 to Dec 15, 2000. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Moynihan was the primary sponsor of 87 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 87 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

Moynihan sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (22%) Economics and Public Finance (15%) Commerce (14%) Social Welfare (11%) Law (10%) Health (10%) Taxation (9%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (9%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Moynihan recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1977 to Dec 2000, Moynihan missed 565 of 9,492 roll call votes, which is 6.0%. This is much worse than the median of 1.9% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2000. 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...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1977 Jan-Mar	92	11	12.0%	56^th
1977 Apr-Jun	178	7	3.9%	38^th
1977 Jul-Sep	233	22	9.4%	81^st
1977 Oct-Dec	133	29	21.8%	75^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	17	21.8%	94^th
1978 Apr-Jun	119	7	5.9%	56^th
1978 Jul-Sep	237	26	11.0%	62^nd
1978 Oct-Oct	86	6	7.0%	50^th
1979 Feb-Mar	32	3	9.4%	65^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	22	18.2%	85^th
1979 Jul-Sep	171	6	3.5%	35^th
1979 Oct-Dec	184	21	11.4%	80^th
1980 Jan-Mar	67	2	3.0%	25^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	25	11.6%	65^th
1980 Jul-Sep	179	20	11.2%	85^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	5	6.0%	40^th
1981 Jan-Mar	57	3	5.3%	77^th
1981 Apr-Jun	125	13	10.4%	92^nd
1981 Jul-Sep	122	16	13.1%	88^th
1981 Oct-Dec	193	35	18.1%	92^nd
1982 Feb-Mar	79	1	1.3%	38^th
1982 Apr-Jun	127	2	1.6%	42^nd
1982 Jul-Sep	177	4	2.3%	50^th
1982 Oct-Dec	86	12	14.0%	85^th
1983 Feb-Mar	54	4	7.4%	75^th
1983 Apr-Jun	122	6	4.9%	68^th
1983 Jul-Sep	92	4	4.3%	68^th
1983 Oct-Nov	103	16	15.5%	75^th
1984 Jan-Mar	45	8	17.8%	82^nd
1984 Apr-Jun	144	12	8.3%	79^th
1984 Jul-Sep	68	5	7.4%	68^th
1984 Oct-Oct	34	2	5.9%	54^th
1985 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Apr-Jun	116	7	6.0%	91^st
1985 Jul-Sep	60	4	6.7%	73^rd
1985 Oct-Dec	183	6	3.3%	52^nd
1986 Jan-Mar	51	0	0.0%	0^th
1986 Apr-Jun	103	6	5.8%	73^rd
1986 Jul-Sep	149	4	2.7%	76^th
1986 Oct-Oct	56	2	3.6%	67^th
1987 Jan-Mar	50	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Apr-Jun	123	1	0.8%	17^th
1987 Jul-Sep	120	5	4.2%	54^th
1987 Oct-Dec	127	5	3.9%	61^st
1988 Jan-Mar	84	4	4.8%	34^th
1988 Apr-Jun	137	7	5.1%	71^st
1988 Jul-Sep	127	1	0.8%	10^th
1988 Oct-Oct	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	77	2	2.6%	69^th
1989 Jul-Sep	118	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Oct-Nov	91	3	3.3%	86^th
1990 Jan-Mar	48	1	2.1%	63^rd
1990 Apr-Jun	95	2	2.1%	62^nd
1990 Jul-Sep	114	2	1.8%	75^th
1990 Oct-Oct	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jan-Mar	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Apr-Jun	74	1	1.4%	67^th
1991 Jul-Sep	96	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Oct-Nov	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jan-Mar	61	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Apr-Jun	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jul-Sep	117	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Feb-Mar	93	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Apr-Jun	99	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Jul-Sep	109	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Oct-Nov	94	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Jan-Mar	86	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Apr-Jun	92	1	1.1%	40^th
1994 Jul-Sep	136	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jan-Mar	125	4	3.2%	70^th
1995 Apr-Jun	171	8	4.7%	87^th
1995 Jul-Sep	184	1	0.5%	30^th
1995 Oct-Dec	133	11	8.3%	96^th
1996 Jan-Mar	60	5	8.3%	87^th
1996 Apr-Jun	122	1	0.8%	57^th
1996 Jul-Sep	121	2	1.7%	83^rd
1996 Oct-Oct	3	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jan-Mar	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Apr-Jun	125	2	1.6%	76^th
1997 Jul-Sep	103	2	1.9%	74^th
1997 Oct-Nov	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Jan-Mar	52	6	11.5%	95^th
1998 Apr-Jun	131	6	4.6%	85^th
1998 Jul-Sep	109	5	4.6%	84^th
1998 Oct-Oct	22	4	18.2%	98^th
1999 Jan-Mar	81	1	1.2%	73^rd
1999 Apr-Jun	111	42	37.8%	99^th
1999 Jul-Sep	112	7	6.2%	91^st
1999 Oct-Nov	70	4	5.7%	87^th
2000 Feb-Mar	51	2	3.9%	87^th
2000 Apr-Jun	120	16	13.3%	97^th
2000 Jul-Sep	89	0	0.0%	0^th
2000 Oct-Dec	38	0	0.0%	0^th

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

Sen. Daniel Moynihan

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