Rep. David Skaggs
Former Representative for Colorado’s 2nd District
Skaggs was the representative for Colorado’s 2nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1987 to 1998.
![Photo of Rep. David Skaggs [D-CO2, 1987-1998]](/static/legislator-photos/409954-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Skaggs is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1998 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 Skaggs sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 1993 to Dec 17, 1998. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Skaggs was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 1922 (104th): To provide for the exchange of certain lands in Gilpin County, Colorado.
- H.R. 1134 (103rd): Clear Creek County, Colorado, Public Lands Transfer Act of 1993
- H.R. 631 (103rd): Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993
Does 3 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
Skaggs sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (21%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (21%) Crime and Law Enforcement (11%) Economics and Public Finance (11%) Water Resources Development (10%) Environmental Protection (10%) Law (10%) Transportation and Public Works (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Skaggs recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 4850 (105th): Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness Act of 1998
- H.R. 4505 (105th): Northern Colorado Headwaters Wilderness Act of 1998
- H.R. 2649 (105th): Expedited Rescissions Act of 1997
- H.R. 2650 (105th): To repeal the Line Item Veto Act of 1996.
- H.R. 2530 (105th): To prohibit the Student Loan Marketing Association from conditioning the waiver of …
- H.R. 2511 (105th): To prohibit the Student Loan Marketing Association from conditioning the waiver of …
- H.R. 2291 (105th): To amend the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978 to enable …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1987 to Dec 1998, Skaggs missed 129 of 6,424 roll call votes, which is 2.0%. This is on par with the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1998. 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
