Johnson was a senator from South Dakota and was a Democrat. He served from 1997 to 2014.
He was previously the representative for South Dakota’s at-large district as a Democrat from 1993 to 1996; and the representative for South Dakota’s 1st congressional district as a Democrat from 1987 to 1992.
![Photo of Sen. Tim Johnson [D-SD, 1997-2014]](/static/legislator-photos/300058-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2014 Report Card for Johnson.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Johnson is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2014 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 Johnson sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2009 to Dec 12, 2014. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Johnson was the primary sponsor of 27 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 459 (113th): Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Boundary Modification Act
- S. 3677 (112th): A bill to make a technical correction to the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973.
- S. 2101 (112th): Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Human Rights Act of 2012
- S. 2099 (112th): A bill to amend the Federal Deposit Insurance Act with respect to information provided to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
- S. 1940 (112th): An original bill to amend the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, to restore the financial solvency of the flood insurance fund, and for other purposes.
- S. 3555 (111th): A bill to designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 515 9th Street in Rapid City, South Dakota, as the “Andrew W. Bogue Federal ...
- S. 1407 (111th): Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
Does 27 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
Johnson sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (31%) Finance and Financial Sector (14%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (11%) Taxation (11%) Armed Forces and National Security (11%) Government Operations and Politics (8%) International Affairs (8%) Water Resources Development (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Johnson’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 2910 (113th): Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act
- S. 2570 (113th): Tribal Adoption Parity Act
- S. 2464 (113th): National Bison Legacy Act
- S.Res. 464 (113th): A resolution designating June 2014 as “National Aphasia Awareness Month” and supporting ...
- S. 2299 (113th): Native American Languages Reauthorization Act of 2014
- S. 2125 (113th): Public Safety and Economic Security Communications Act of 2014
- S.Con.Res. 25 (113th): A concurrent resolution authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol ...
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1997 to Dec 2014, Johnson missed 402 of 5,733 roll call votes, which is 7.0%. This is much worse than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2014. 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.
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
