Hansen was the representative for Utah’s 1st congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1981 to 2002.
![Photo of Rep. James Hansen [R-UT1, 1981-2002]](/static/legislator-photos/400552-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Hansen is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2002 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 Hansen sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 1997 to Nov 19, 2002. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Hansen was the primary sponsor of 24 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 5099 (107th): To extend the periods of authorization for the Secretary of the Interior to implement capital construction projects associated with the endangered fish recovery implementation programs for the ...
- H.R. 3909 (107th): Gunn McKay Nature Preserve Act
- H.R. 2385 (107th): Virgin River Dinosaur Footprint Preserve Act
- H.R. 451 (107th): Mount Nebo Wilderness Boundary Adjustment Act
- H.R. 3908 (107th): North American Wetlands Conservation Reauthorization Act
- H.R. 4404 (106th): To permit the payment of medical expenses incurred by the United States Park Police in the performance of duty to be made directly by the National Park ...
- H.R. 2348 (106th): To authorize the Bureau of Reclamation to provide cost sharing for the endangered fish recovery implementation programs for the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins.
Does 24 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
Hansen sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Public Lands and Natural Resources (24%) Government Operations and Politics (18%) Law (12%) Animals (10%) Economics and Public Finance (10%) Environmental Protection (9%) Transportation and Public Works (9%) Water Resources Development (7%)
Recent Bills
Some of Hansen’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 5709 (107th): Life, Liberty, and Property Protection Act
- H.R. 5569 (107th): Comprehensive Natural Resources Protection Act of 2002
- H.R. 5440 (107th): To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act concerning loss of nationality for ...
- H.R. 5180 (107th): To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey certain real property in ...
- H.R. 5099 (107th): To extend the periods of authorization for the Secretary of the Interior ...
- H.R. 5041 (107th): To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act concerning loss of nationality for ...
- H.R. 4870 (107th): Mount Naomi Wilderness Boundary Adjustment Act
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1981 to Nov 2002, Hansen missed 766 of 11,242 roll call votes, which is 6.8%. This is much worse than the median of 2.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Nov 2002. 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