Sawyer was the representative for Ohio’s 14th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1987 to 2002.
![Photo of Rep. Thomas Sawyer [D-OH14, 1987-2002]](/static/legislator-photos/400539-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Sawyer is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives 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 Sawyer sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 1997 to Nov 19, 2002. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Sawyer was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 1011 (104th): To extend the deadline under the Federal Power Act applicable to the construction of a hydroelectric project in the State of Ohio.
- H.R. 5084 (103rd): Census Address List Improvement Act of 1994
- H.R. 2608 (103rd): An Act to provide for the reauthorization of the collection and publication of quaterly financial statistics by the Secretary of Commerce through fiscal year 1998, and for …
- H.R. 2181 (102nd): To permit the Secretary of the Interior to acquire by exchange lands in the Cuyahoga National Recreation Area that are owned by the State of Ohio.
- H.R. 3280 (102nd): Decennial Census Improvement Act of 1991
- H.R. 751 (102nd): National Literacy Act of 1991
- H.R. 4637 (101st): To amend Public Law 101-86 to eliminate the 6-month limitation on the period for which civilian and military retirees may serve as temporary employees, in connection with …
Does 10 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
Sawyer sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (19%) Commerce (16%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (16%) Law (10%) Science, Technology, Communications (10%) Economics and Public Finance (10%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (10%) International Affairs (10%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Sawyer recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 2814 (107th): Interstate Transmission Act
- H.R. 2135 (107th): Consumer Privacy Protection Act
- H.R. 2136 (107th): Confidential Information Protection Act
- H.R. 1828 (107th): Unilateral Sanction Reporting Act
- H.Con.Res. 70 (107th): Expressing the sense of the Congress that the United States should develop, …
- H.R. 3406 (106th): To require the President to report annually to the Congress on the …
- H.R. 2786 (106th): Interstate Transmission Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1987 to Nov 2002, Sawyer missed 101 of 8,634 roll call votes, which is 1.2%. This is better than the median of 2.8% among the lifetime records of representatives 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.
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
