Durenberger was a senator from Minnesota and was a Republican. He served from 1978 to 1994.
Misconduct
Durenberger faced an allegation of misuse of public funds while in office. On Aug. 22, 1995, he pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges of abuse of a Congressional expense account.
| Aug. 22, 1995 | Pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges of abuse of a Congressional expense account. |
Durenberger faced an allegation of a wide range of financial misconduct. On Jul. 25, 1990, the Senate voted to denounce him 96-0, which appears to have been intended as a type of censure which acknowledges no ill intent.
| Jul. 25, 1990 | Senate voted 96-0 to denounce, which appears to have been intended as a type of censure which acknowledges no ill intent. |
![Photo of Sen. David Durenberger [R-MN, 1978-1994]](/static/legislator-photos/403669-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Durenberger is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 1994 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 Durenberger sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 25, 1989 to Dec 1, 1994. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Durenberger was the primary sponsor of 16 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S.J.Res. 131 (101st): A joint resolution to designate November 1989 as “National Diabetes Month”.
- S.J.Res. 216 (101st): A joint resolution designating November 12 through 18, 1989, as “Community Foundation Week”.
- S. 2042 (100th): An Act to authorize the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project, Inc., to construct within the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial site in the District of Columbia a specific commemoration of …
- S.J.Res. 272 (100th): A bill to designate November, 1988, as “National Diabetes Month”.
- S.J.Res. 324 (100th): A joint resolution to designate February 1989 as “America Loves Its Kids Month”.
- S.J.Res. 44 (100th): A joint resolution to designate November 1987, as “National Diabetes Month”.
- S.J.Res. 109 (100th): A joint resolution to designate the week beginning October 4, 1987, as “National School Yearbook Week”.
Does 16 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
Durenberger sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Foreign Trade and International Finance (22%) Health (21%) Taxation (18%) Education (10%) Labor and Employment (8%) Agriculture and Food (8%) Environmental Protection (7%) Government Operations and Politics (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Durenberger recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 2514 (103rd): Economic Equity Act
- S. 2503 (103rd): Americans with Disabilities Business Development Act of 1993
- S.Res. 250 (103rd): A resolution to refer S. 2409 entitled “A bill for the relief …
- S. 2409 (103rd): A bill for the relief of D.W. Jacobson, Ronald Karkala, and Paul …
- S. 2362 (103rd): Comprehensive Torture Victims Relief Act
- S. 2204 (103rd): Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fee Equity Act of 1994
- S. 1996 (103rd): Medicare Choice Act of 1994
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Feb 1979 to Dec 1994, Durenberger missed 424 of 6,133 roll call votes, which is 6.9%. This is worse than the median of 3.4% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 1994. 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.
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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
