Murkowski is the senior senator from Alaska and is a Republican. She has served since Jan 7, 2003. Murkowski is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023 unless re-elected.
![Photo of Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R-AK]](/static/legislator-photos/300075-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2019 Report Card for Murkowski.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Murkowski 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 Murkowski has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Sep 21, 2020. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Lisa Murkowski sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Murkowski was the primary sponsor of 30 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 2580: Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020
- S. 47: John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act
- S. 133: Merchant Mariners of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2019
- S. 825 (115th): Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium Land Transfer Act of 2017
- S. 3673 (115th): Department of Energy Quantum Information Science Research Act
- S. 2503 (115th): Department of Energy Research and Innovation Act
- S. 724 (115th): A bill to amend the Federal Power Act to modernize authorizations for necessary hydropower approvals.
Does 30 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
Murkowski sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Native Americans (29%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (23%) Energy (17%) Health (11%) Armed Forces and National Security (8%) Taxation (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Murkowski’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S.Res. 677: A resolution designating August 16, 2020, as “National Airborne Day”.
- S. 4333: Tribal Economic Development Act of 2020
- S. 3948: A bill to amend the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on ...
- S. 3939: Blue Carbon for Our Planet Act
- S. 3923: Emergency Family Stabilization Act
- S. 3688: Energy Infrastructure Protection Act of 2020
- S.Res. 565: A resolution recognizing the heritage, culture, and contributions of American Indian, Alaska Native, ...
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2003 to Sep 2020, Murkowski missed 271 of 5,534 roll call votes, which is 4.9%. This is much worse than the median of 1.7% 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 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
