Sen. Thad Cochran

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 Report Card for Cochran.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Cochran is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2019 positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Cochran sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2013 to Jan 2, 2019. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Enacted Legislation

Cochran was the primary sponsor of 56 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 2558: Okhissa Lake Rural Economic Development Land Conveyance Act
• S. 1260: Gulf Islands National Seashore Land Exchange Act
• S. 644: Medgar Evers House Study Act
• S. 3350 (114th): Clarification of Treatment of Electronic Sales of Livestock Act of 2016
• S. 2129 (114th): An Act Making Appropriations to Improve the Nation’s Infrastructure and for Other Purposes, 2016
• S. 2130 (114th): An Act Making Appropriations for National Security and for Other Purposes, 2016
• S. 2131 (114th): An Act Making Appropriations for Law Enforcement and for Other Purposes, 2016

View All »

Does 56 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

Cochran sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (28%) Economics and Public Finance (28%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (22%) Transportation and Public Works (11%) Armed Forces and National Security (11%)

Recent Bills

Some of Cochran’s most recently sponsored bills include...

• S. 2558: Okhissa Lake Rural Economic Development Land Conveyance Act
• S.Con.Res. 33: A concurrent resolution providing for a correction in the enrollment of H.R. 195.
• S. 1260: Gulf Islands National Seashore Land Exchange Act
• S. 644: Medgar Evers House Study Act
• S.Con.Res. 53 (114th): A concurrent resolution directing the Clerk of the House of Representatives to ...
• S. 3350 (114th): Clarification of Treatment of Electronic Sales of Livestock Act of 2016
• S. 3054 (114th): Preserving Civil Rights Heritage Act of 2016

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Feb 1979 to Mar 2018, Cochran missed 516 of 13,675 roll call votes, which is 3.8%. This is much worse than the median of 1.5% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Mar 2018. 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
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills