Johnston was a senator from Louisiana and was a Democrat. He served from 1972 to 1996.
![Photo of Sen. John Johnston [D-LA, 1972-1996]](/static/legislator-photos/406084-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Johnston is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 1996 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 Johnston sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Johnston was the primary sponsor of 46 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 2466 (103rd): Energy Policy and Conservation Act Amendments of 1994
- S. 2461 (103rd): Energy Policy and Conservation Act Amendments Act of 1994
- S. 1769 (103rd): A bill to make a technical correction, and for other purposes.
- S. 433 (103rd): A bill to authorize and direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain lands in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, and for other purposes.
- S. 983 (103rd): El Camino Real Para Los Texas Study Act of 1993
- S. 1584 (103rd): A bill to designate the United States courthouse located in Houma, Louisiana, as the “George Arceneaux, Jr. United States Courthouse”, and for other purposes.
- S. 1439 (102nd): A bill to authorize and direct the Secrtary of Interior to convey certain lands in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
Does 46 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
Johnston sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Foreign Trade and International Finance (20%) Government Operations and Politics (18%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (17%) Energy (13%) Environmental Protection (11%) Economics and Public Finance (9%) Law (6%) Health (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Johnston recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 2033 (104th): DOE Reports Elimination and Streamlining Act of 1996
- S. 2014 (104th): A bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to acquire property …
- S. 1874 (104th): Department of Energy Standardization Act of 1996
- S. 1852 (104th): Department of Energy Class Action Lawsuit Act
- S. 1627 (104th): A bill to designate the visitor center at Jean Lafitte National Historical …
- S. 1526 (104th): Electricity Competition Act of 1996
- S. 1442 (104th): A bill to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1973 to Oct 1996, Johnston missed 890 of 10,657 roll call votes, which is 8.4%. This is much worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Oct 1996. 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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills