![Photo of Sen. James “Jim” Inhofe [R-OK]](/static/legislator-photos/300055-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Inhofe is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate 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 Inhofe has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to May 19, 2022. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
James “Jim” Inhofe sits on the following committees:
- Senate Committee on Armed Services Ranking Member
- Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Ex Officio
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Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
- Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety subcommittee Ranking Member
Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water, Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittees - Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Enacted Legislation
Inhofe was the primary sponsor of 31 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 1790 (116th): National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020
- S. 3043 (116th): Promoting Aviation Regulations for Technical Training (PARTT) 147 Act of 2019
- S. 2840 (116th): Essential National Security Authorities Act for Fiscal Year 2020
- S. 2731 (116th): Essential National Security Authorities Act for Fiscal Year 2020
- S. 3661 (115th): 75th Anniversary of World War II Commemoration Act
- S. 1266 (115th): Enhancing Veteran Care Act
- S. 1860 (115th): PARs Act
Does 31 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
Inhofe sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Transportation and Public Works (33%) Armed Forces and National Security (18%) Immigration (12%) International Affairs (9%) Health (8%) Taxation (8%) Government Operations and Politics (6%) Energy (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Inhofe recently introduced the following legislation:
- S.Res. 641: A resolution designating the week of May 15 through May 21, 2022, as …
- S. 3971: A bill to amend the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 to modify …
- S. 3917: Protecting Medicaid Beneficiaries Act of 2022
- S. 3497: Medical Student Education Authorization Act of 2022
- S. 3146: WALL Act of 2021
- S. 3085: HARMON Oklahoma Act
- S. 2737: Constitution education Is Valuable In Community Schools Act of 2021
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Dec 1994 to May 2022, Inhofe missed 439 of 9,195 roll call votes, which is 4.8%. This is much worse than the median of 2.2% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills