Chafee was a senator from Rhode Island and was a Republican. He served from 1999 to 2006.
![Photo of Sen. Lincoln Chafee [R-RI, 1999-2006]](/static/legislator-photos/300020-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Chafee is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2006 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 Chafee sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 22, 2001 to Dec 8, 2006. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Chafee was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:
Does 1 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
Chafee sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (21%) Economics and Public Finance (19%) Environmental Protection (19%) Water Resources Development (10%) Health (10%) Science, Technology, Communications (8%) International Affairs (7%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Chafee recently introduced the following legislation:
- S.Res. 562 (109th): A resolution paying tribute to the Reverend Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp …
- S. 3240 (109th): A bill to amend the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States …
- S.Res. 301 (109th): A resolution commemorating the 100th anniversary of the National Audubon Society.
- S. 1400 (109th): Water Infrastructure Financing Act
- S. 1410 (109th): Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Improvement Act of 2005
- S. 1387 (109th): John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Reauthorization Act of …
- S. 1017 (109th): Water Resources Research Act Amendments of 2005
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Nov 1999 to Dec 2006, Chafee missed 28 of 2,272 roll call votes, which is 1.2%. This is better than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2006. 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.
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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
