Lankford is the junior senator from Oklahoma and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 6, 2015. Lankford is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.
He was previously the representative for Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district as a Republican from 2011 to 2014.
![Photo of Sen. James Lankford [R-OK]](/static/legislator-photos/412464-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 Report Card for Lankford.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Lankford 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 Lankford has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Jul 31, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
James Lankford sits on the following committees:
- Senate Select Committee on Ethics Vice Chair
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Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
- Government Operations and Border Management subcommittee Ranking Member
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations subcommittees -
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
- Senate Committee on Finance
- Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
Enacted Legislation
Lankford was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 4138 (116th): Telework for U.S. Innovation Act
- S. 1430 (116th): Representative Payee Fraud Prevention Act of 2019
- S. 2132 (116th): Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act of 2019
- S. 2177 (116th): Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act
- S. 1829 (116th): GREAT Act
- S. 3675 (115th): A bill to amend the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 to ensure that the Public Buildings Reform Board has adequate time to carry out ...
- S. 1887 (115th): Direct Hire of Students and Recent Graduates Act of 2017
Does 10 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
Lankford sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (44%) International Affairs (17%) Taxation (13%) Health (9%) Economics and Public Finance (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Lankford’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 2281: SAFE Contracting Act
- S. 2161: Retain Skilled Veterans Act
- S. 1870: Enhancing Emergency and Retirement Savings Act of 2021
- S. 1950: Iran Sanctions Preservation Act
- S.Res. 234: A resolution recognizing the 100th Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
- S. 1387: PTC Elimination Act
- S. 1096: Fry Scholarship Enhancement Act of 2021
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2015 to Jul 2021, Lankford missed 3 of 2,110 roll call votes, which is 0.1%. This is better than the median of 1.6% 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
