Rep. Robert Freeman 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 House of Representatives in 1998 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 5, 1993 to Dec 17, 1998. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Smith was the primary sponsor of 9 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• H.R. 4326 (105th): Oregon Public Lands Transfer and Protection Act of 1998
• H.R. 1197 (105th): Plant Patent Amendment Act of 1998
• H.R. 3796 (105th): To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to convey the administrative site for the Rogue River National Forest and use the proceeds for the construction or improvement of …
• H.R. 1944 (105th): Warner Canyon Ski Hill Land Exchange Act of 1997
• H.R. 1198 (105th): To direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain land to the City of Grants Pass, Oregon.
• H.R. 3840 (101st): To establish the Newberry Volcanoes National Monument in the State of Oregon, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 3448 (101st): To convey certain Oregon and California Railroad Grant Lands in Josephine County, Oregon, to the Rogue Community College District.

View All »

Does 9 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:

Public Lands and Natural Resources (16%) Government Operations and Politics (14%) Law (14%) Agriculture and Food (14%) Economics and Public Finance (13%) Commerce (10%) Transportation and Public Works (9%) Environmental Protection (8%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Smith recently introduced the following legislation:

• H.Res. 583 (105th): Expressing the sense of the House with respect to barriers between the …
• H.R. 4618 (105th): Agriculture Disaster and Market Loss Assistance Act of 1998
• H.R. 4507 (105th): Financial Markets Reassurance Act of 1998
• H.R. 4326 (105th): Oregon Public Lands Transfer and Protection Act of 1998
• H.R. 4265 (105th): Emergency Farm Financial Relief Act
• H.R. 4195 (105th): Agriculture Export Relief Act of 1998
• H.R. 4149 (105th): Forest Service Cost Reduction and Fiscal Accountability Act of 1998

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1983 to Dec 1998, Smith missed 458 of 6,880 roll call votes, which is 6.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1998. 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.

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
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills