Rep. Merrill Cook
Former Representative for Utah’s 2nd District
Cook was the representative for Utah’s 2nd congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1997 to 2000.
![Photo of Rep. Merrill Cook [R-UT2, 1997-2000]](/static/legislator-photos/400577-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Cook is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2000 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 Cook sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1995 to Dec 15, 2000. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Cook was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 3679 (106th): 2002 Winter Olympic Commemorative Coin Act
- H.R. 1251 (106th): To designate the United States Postal Service building located at 8850 South 700 East, Sandy, Utah, as the “Noal Cushing Bateman Post Office Building”.
Does 2 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
Cook sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (23%) Commerce (13%) Economics and Public Finance (13%) Law (13%) Science, Technology, Communications (11%) Transportation and Public Works (9%) Finance and Financial Sector (9%) Sports and Recreation (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Cook recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5411 (106th): To direct the Secretary of Transportation to permit the State of Utah …
- H.R. 4989 (106th): Campaign Finance Disclosure on Sales of Personnel Assets Act of 2000
- H.R. 4676 (106th): Space Transportation Investment Act of 2000
- H.R. 4558 (106th): To amend the Reclamation Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992 to …
- H.R. 3679 (106th): 2002 Winter Olympic Commemorative Coin Act
- H.R. 3268 (106th): Fair Cabin User Fee Act of 1999
- H.R. 3074 (106th): To repeal the Federal estate and gift taxes and the alternative minimum …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1997 to Dec 2000, Cook missed 232 of 2,401 roll call votes, which is 9.7%. This is much worse than the median of 3.0% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2000. 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
