Sen. Don Nickles
Former Senator for Oklahoma
Nickles was a senator from Oklahoma and was a Republican. He served from 1981 to 2004.
![Photo of Sen. Don Nickles [R-OK, 1981-2004]](/static/legislator-photos/300079-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Nickles is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2004 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 Nickles sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1999 to Dec 8, 2004. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Nickles was the primary sponsor of 21 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 2374 (108th): Chickasaw National Recreation Area Land Exchange Act of 2004
- S. 103 (108th): A bill for the relief of Lindita Idrizi Heath.
- S. 2 (108th): Jobs and Growth Reconciliation Tax Act of 2003
- S. 2828 (107th): A bill to redesignate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 6910 South Yorktown Avenue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as the “Robert Wayne Jenkins Station”.
- S.J.Res. 6 (107th): Ergonomics Regulations resolution
- S. 1485 (106th): Adopted Orphans Citizenship Act
- S. 606 (106th): A bill for the relief of Global Exploration and Development Corporation, Kerr-McGee Corporation, and Kerr-McGee Chemical, LLC (successor to Kerr-McGee Chemical Corporation), and for other purposes.
Does 21 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
Nickles sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Commerce (20%) Government Operations and Politics (14%) Taxation (14%) Law (12%) International Affairs (12%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (11%) Health (9%) Immigration (9%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Nickles recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 3031 (108th): ICARE Act
- S. 2662 (108th): SUTA Dumping Prevention Act of 2004
- S. 2374 (108th): Chickasaw National Recreation Area Land Exchange Act of 2004
- S. 2320 (108th): A bill for the relief of Renato Rosetti.
- S.Con.Res. 95 (108th): Budget resolution FY2005
- S. 2128 (108th): Natural Born Citizen Act
- S.Res. 275 (108th): A resolution to affirm the Defense of Marriage Act.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1981 to Dec 2004, Nickles missed 124 of 8,590 roll call votes, which is 1.4%. This is on par with the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2004. 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
