Sen. Robert “Bob” Smith

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Smith is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2002 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 Smith sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 1997 to Nov 20, 2002. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Smith was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:

• S. 1866 (106th): John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System Act
• S. 2073 (103rd): A bill to designate the United States courthouse that is scheduled to be constructed in Concord, New Hampshire, as the “Warren B. Rudman United States Courthouse”, and …
• S.J.Res. 196 (103rd): A joint resolution designating September 16, 1994, as “National POW/MIA Recognition Day” and authorizing display of the National League of Families POW/MIA flag.
• S.J.Res. 126 (103rd): A joint resolution designating September 10, 1993, as “National POW/MIA Recognition Day” and authorizing the display of the National League of Families POW/MIA flag.
• S. 461 (102nd): Lamprey River Study Act of 1991

View All »

Does 5 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Smith sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (24%) Law (15%) Economics and Public Finance (11%) Commerce (11%) International Affairs (11%) Crime and Law Enforcement (11%) Science, Technology, Communications (9%) Transportation and Public Works (9%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Smith recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 2886 (107th): Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act
• S. 2813 (107th): Water Quality Investment Act of 2002
• S. 2815 (107th): Clear Skies Act of 2002
• S.Res. 297 (107th): A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that pet owners should …
• S.Res. 290 (107th): A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the designation of …
• S.Res. 288 (107th): A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that New Hampshire residents …
• S. 2575 (107th): American Land Sovereignty Protection Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1991 to Nov 2002, Smith missed 39 of 4,110 roll call votes, which is 0.9%. This is better than the median of 1.8% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Nov 2002. 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.

Show the numbers...

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
• Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills