![Photo of Sen. Spark Matsunaga [D-HI, 1977-1990]](/static/legislator-photos/407268-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Matsunaga is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 1990 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 Matsunaga sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1985 to Oct 28, 1990. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Matsunaga was the primary sponsor of 30 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 639 (101st): Spark M. Matsunaga Hydrogen Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1990
- S. 2111 (101st): A bill designating the month of May as “Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month”.
- S.J.Res. 75 (101st): A joint resolution relating to NASA and the International Space Year.
- S. 451 (100th): A bill to require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to determine the appropriate minimum altitude for aircraft flying over national park system units.
- S. 261 (100th): A bill to authorize the establishment of a Peace Garden on a site to be selected by the Secretary of the Interior.
- S. 71 (100th): A bill to authorize the establishment of a Peace Garden on a site to be selected by the Secretary of the Interior.
- S. 2948 (99th): A bill to authorize the President to promote posthumously the late Lieutenant Colonel Ellison S. Onizuka to the grade of Colonel.
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
Matsunaga sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Private Legislation (31%) Immigration (25%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) Energy (10%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (8%) Labor and Employment (6%) Health (5%) Native Americans (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Matsunaga recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 2111 (101st): A bill designating the month of May as “Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month”.
- S. 1940 (101st): A bill for the relief of Clement Perez.
- S. 1769 (101st): A bill to amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to …
- S. 1642 (101st): A bill to extend the existing suspension of duty on certain knitwear …
- S. 1552 (101st): Allied Health Professionals Promotion Act of 1989
- S. 1205 (101st): Foreign Currency Agricultural Research Competitiveness Act of 1989
- S. 1145 (101st): A bill to reestablish the Advisory Committee on Native-American Veterans.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1977 to Apr 1990, Matsunaga missed 533 of 5,746 roll call votes, which is 9.3%. This is much worse than the median of 4.6% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Apr 1990. 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
- 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
