James Lankford, Senator for Oklahoma

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.

He was previously the representative for Oklahoma’s 5^th congressional district as a Republican from 2011 to 2014.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 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 liberal–conservative 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. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Americans for Prosperity: 100% The Club for Growth: 100% United States Chamber of Commerce: 92% NumbersUSA: 86% FreedomWorks: 81% American Civil Liberties Union: 23% NIAC Action: D Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 9% League of Conservation Voters: 5% Human Rights Campaign: 0% The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: F

Committee Membership

James Lankford sits on the following committees:

Senate Committee on Appropriations
- Chair, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
- Member, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
- Member, Subcommittee on Department of Homeland Security
- Member, Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
- Member, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
- Member, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
- Chair, Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management
- Member, Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management
- Member, Subcommittee on Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Enacted Legislation

Lankford was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:

View All »

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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Lankford sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (47%) International Affairs (13%) Health (13%) Taxation (9%) Environmental Protection (6%)

Recent Bills

Some of Lankford’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Lankford’s Vote	Vote Description
Yea	H.R. 2: Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 Dec 11, 2018. Conference Report Agreed to 87/13. See the Congressional Research Service's 122-page summary of the bill. * * * H.R. 2 amends and extends major programs for income support, food and nutrition, land conservation, trade promotion, rural development, research, forestry, horticulture, and other miscellaneous programs administered by the Department of Agriculture ...
Yea	H.J.Res. 43: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule submitted by Secretary of Health and Human Services relating ... Mar 30, 2017. Joint Resolution Passed 51/50. Joe Biden never got the opportunity to break a single 50-50 Senate tie in eight years as vice president. Mike Pence has already broken two. One from last month has since become law: a measure allowing states to withhold federal Planned Parenthood funding. (The other ...
Nay	H.R. 5325: Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017 Sep 28, 2016. Bill Passed 72/26. The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations bill which extended funding at the previous year's levels up to December 9, 2016 (10 weeks). After this, a continuing ...
Yea	S. 2943: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 Jun 14, 2016. Bill Passed 85/13. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (H.R. 4909; NDAA 2017, Pub.L. 114-328) is a United States proposed federal bill which specifies the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense (DOD) for Fiscal Year 2017. This summary is from Wikipedia.
Nay	H.R. 22: Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act Dec 3, 2015. Conference Report Agreed to 83/16. H.R 22, formerly the Hire More Heroes Act, has become the Senate’s vehicle for passage of the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act or DRIVE Act (S. 1647). The DRIVE Act is a major bipartisan transportation bill that would authorize funding ...
Nay	H.R. 22: Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act Jul 30, 2015. Bill Passed 65/34. This vote turned H.R 22, originally the Hire More Heroes Act, into the Senate’s vehicle for passage of the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act or DRIVE Act (S. 1647), a major bipartisan transportation bill, and the Export-Import Bank Reform and ...
Nay	H.R. 83 (113th): Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 Dec 11, 2014. Passed 219/206. This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 [pdf], which was approved by the House on December 11, 2014 and by the Senate on December 13, 2014. The bill was originally introduced on January 3, 2013 by ...
No	H.R. 5771 (113th): Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 Dec 3, 2014. Passed 378/46.
Aye	H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 Sep 17, 2014. Passed 319/108.
No	H.R. 5021 (113th): Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014 Jul 15, 2014. Passed 367/55.
Aye	H.R. 1249 (112th): Leahy-Smith America Invents Act Jun 23, 2011. Passed 304/117. The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on September 16, 2011. The law represents the most significant legislative change to the U.S. patent system since the ...

Missed Votes

From Jan 2015 to Dec 2018, Lankford missed 3 of 1,089 roll call votes, which is 0.3%. This is better than the median of 1.5% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
2015 Jan-Mar	135	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Apr-Jun	85	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Jul-Sep	52	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Oct-Dec	67	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Apr-Jun	79	1	1.3%	45^th
2016 Jul-Sep	34	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Nov-Dec	12	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	101	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Apr-Jun	54	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jul-Sep	53	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Oct-Dec	117	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Apr-Jun	80	2	2.5%	64^th
2018 Jul-Sep	75	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Oct-Dec	44	0	0.0%	0^th

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

James Lankford is pronounced:

jaymz // LANK-ferd

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In
A a	cat
AY ay	say
D d	day
ER er	her
F f	fat
J j	jam
L l	leg
M m	man
NK nk	thank
Z z	zebra

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Sen. James Lankford

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