Sen. James Risch

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Risch.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Risch 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 Risch has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Sep 29, 2023. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

James Risch sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Ranking Member
  Africa and Global Health Policy, East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development, Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
  • Water and Power subcommittee Ranking Member

  Energy, Public Lands, Forests, and Mining subcommittees
• Senate Select Committee on Ethics
• Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• United States Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control

Enacted Legislation

Risch was the primary sponsor of 14 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 1617 (117th): Disaster Assistance for Rural Communities Act
• S. 4320 (117th): Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 2022
• S. 816 (117th): Diplomatic Support and Security Act of 2022
• S. 904 (117th): Modernizing Access to Our Public Land Act
• S. 1570 (116th): Aquifer Recharge Flexibility Act
• S. 2092 (116th): Modernizing the Pittman-Robertson Fund for Tomorrow’s Needs Act
• S. 79 (116th): A bill to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to maintain or replace certain facilities and structures for commercial recreation services at Smith Gulch in Idaho, and for …

View All »

Does 14 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Risch sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (64%) Commerce (11%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Risch recently introduced the following legislation:

• S.Res. 385: A resolution calling for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, a United States …
• S. 2935: A bill to prohibit any official action to recognize or normalize relations with …
• S. 2740: Small Business Cyber Resiliency Act
• S. 2571: Grizzly Bear Review and Resource Restart Act of 2023
• S. 2562: A bill to require ports of entry along the northern border to remain …
• S. 2113: PLUS Act of 2023
• S. 2160: Urban Canal Modernization Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2009 to Sep 2023, Risch missed 143 of 4,850 roll call votes, which is 2.9%. This is on par with the median of 2.4% 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, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

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