Sen. John Chafee

Former Senator from Rhode Island

Republican

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	State / District
1976-1999	Senator	Rhode Island

Sponsorship Analysis

Our unique analysis of the bills Chafee sponsored and cosponsored provides insight into his position in the Senate.

Each dot in the chart below is a member of the Senate. The dots are positioned horizontally according to our progressive—conservative ideology score and vertically according to our leadership score (leaders toward the top). Chafee is shown as a purple triangle. (analysis methodology)

Bills Sponsored

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

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1977 to Oct 1999, Chafee missed 374 of 9,156 roll call votes, which is 4.1%. This is worse than the median of 1.9% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Oct 1999. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1977 Jan-Mar	92	3	3.3%	31^st
1977 Apr-Jun	178	41	23.0%	94^th
1977 Jul-Sep	233	24	10.3%	94^th
1977 Oct-Dec	132	11	8.3%	44^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	5	6.4%	50^th
1978 Apr-Jun	119	4	3.4%	44^th
1978 Jul-Sep	236	19	8.1%	38^th
1978 Oct-Oct	86	2	2.3%	25^th
1979 Feb-Mar	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	31	25.6%	90^th
1979 Jul-Sep	171	5	2.9%	30^th
1979 Oct-Dec	184	9	4.9%	30^th
1980 Jan-Mar	67	6	9.0%	75^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	15	6.9%	50^th
1980 Jul-Sep	179	0	0.0%	0^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Jan-Mar	57	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	125	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Jul-Sep	121	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Oct-Dec	193	15	7.8%	65^th
1982 Feb-Mar	79	13	16.5%	81^st
1982 Apr-Jun	127	1	0.8%	27^th
1982 Jul-Sep	177	0	0.0%	0^th
1982 Oct-Dec	86	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Feb-Mar	54	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Apr-Jun	122	3	2.5%	54^th
1983 Jul-Sep	92	2	2.2%	36^th
1983 Oct-Nov	102	4	3.9%	46^th
1984 Jan-Mar	45	4	8.9%	68^th
1984 Apr-Jun	144	9	6.3%	64^th
1984 Jul-Sep	68	2	2.9%	36^th
1984 Oct-Oct	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Jan-Mar	22	1	4.5%	70^th
1985 Apr-Jun	116	2	1.7%	45^th
1985 Jul-Sep	60	3	5.0%	70^th
1985 Oct-Dec	183	6	3.3%	52^nd
1986 Jan-Mar	51	0	0.0%	0^th
1986 Apr-Jun	103	6	5.8%	76^th
1986 Jul-Sep	149	1	0.7%	30^th
1986 Oct-Oct	56	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jan-Mar	50	3	6.0%	80^th
1987 Apr-Jun	123	7	5.7%	66^th
1987 Jul-Sep	120	1	0.8%	12^th
1987 Oct-Dec	127	5	3.9%	61^st
1988 Jan-Mar	84	8	9.5%	68^th
1988 Apr-Jun	137	5	3.6%	54^th
1988 Jul-Sep	127	8	6.3%	76^th
1988 Oct-Oct	31	3	9.7%	59^th
1989 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	77	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jul-Sep	118	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Oct-Nov	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jan-Mar	48	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Apr-Jun	95	12	12.6%	98^th
1990 Jul-Sep	114	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Oct-Oct	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jan-Mar	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Apr-Jun	74	2	2.7%	85^th
1991 Jul-Sep	96	3	3.1%	71^st
1991 Oct-Nov	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jan-Mar	61	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Apr-Jun	74	3	4.1%	76^th
1992 Jul-Sep	117	3	2.6%	51^st
1992 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Feb-Mar	93	1	1.1%	53^rd
1993 Apr-Jun	99	1	1.0%	33^rd
1993 Jul-Sep	109	3	2.8%	74^th
1993 Oct-Nov	94	2	2.1%	62^nd
1994 Jan-Mar	86	9	10.5%	88^th
1994 Apr-Jun	92	3	3.3%	78^th
1994 Jul-Sep	136	8	5.9%	86^th
1994 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jan-Mar	125	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Apr-Jun	171	1	0.6%	24^th
1995 Jul-Sep	184	2	1.1%	49^th
1995 Oct-Dec	133	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Jan-Mar	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Apr-Jun	122	2	1.6%	79^th
1996 Jul-Sep	121	1	0.8%	65^th
1996 Oct-Oct	3	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jan-Mar	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Apr-Jun	125	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jul-Sep	103	6	5.8%	90^th
1997 Oct-Nov	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Jan-Mar	52	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Apr-Jun	131	2	1.5%	71^st
1998 Jul-Sep	109	1	0.9%	39^th
1998 Oct-Oct	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Apr-Jun	111	5	4.5%	82^nd
1999 Jul-Sep	112	11	9.8%	97^th
1999 Oct-Nov	36	6	16.7%	98^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
Congressional Biographical Directory for elected positions
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
THOMAS, for sponsored bills

Recent Legislative Activity

Elections and Offices

Sen. John Chafee [R-RI, 1976-1999] leaves office as Senator from Rhode Island

Dec 31, 1999

Elections and Offices

Sen. John Chafee [R-RI, 1976-1999] takes office as Senator from Rhode Island

Jan 1, 1976