Sen. Frank Lautenberg

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Lautenberg 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 ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills legislators sponsored and cosponsored from Jan. 6, 2009 to Dec. 12, 2014. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Lautenberg was the primary sponsor of 42 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 314 (113th): Sudden Unexpected Death Data Enhancement and Awareness Act
• S. 1952 (112th): Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety Improvement Act of 2011
• S. 3013 (111th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 216 Westwood Avenue in Westwood, New Jersey, as the “Sergeant Christopher R. Hrbek …
• S. 904 (109th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1560 Union Valley Road in West Milford, New Jersey, as the “Brian P. …
• S. 1296 (106th): Lower Delaware Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
• S. 362 (106th): A bill to authorize appropriations for the Coastal Heritage Trail Route in New Jersey, and for other purposes.
• S. 833 (105th): A bill to designate the Federal building courthouse at Public Square and Superior Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, as the “Howard M. Metzenbaum United States Courthouse”.

View All »

Does 42 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

Lautenberg sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Transportation and Public Works (23%) Environmental Protection (16%) Crime and Law Enforcement (14%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (14%) Health (13%) Education (11%) Taxation (5%) Economics and Public Finance (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Lautenberg recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 1036 (113th): Foreign Language Education Partnership Program Act
• S. 1009 (113th): Chemical Safety Improvement Act
• S. 979 (113th): Drunk Driving Repeat Offender Prevention Act of 2013
• S. 903 (113th): Alien Gun Violence Prevention Act of 2013
• S. 880 (113th): Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act of 2013
• S. 814 (113th): Protecting Communities from Chemical Explosions Act of 2013
• S. 826 (113th): Tobacco Tax and Enforcement Reform Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Nay		S. 3240 (112th): Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012 Bill Passed 64/35 on June 21, 2012.
Yea		H.R. 1540 (112th): National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 Conference Report Agreed to 86/13 on Dec. 15, 2011.
Nay		S. 365 (112th): Budget Control Act of 2011 Motion Agreed to 74/26 on Aug. 2, 2011. The Budget Control Act of 2011 (Pub.L. 112–25, S. 365, 125 Stat. 240, enacted August 2, 2011) is a federal statute enacted by the 112th …
Yea		H.J.Res. 48 (112th): Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011 Joint Resolution Passed 87/13 on March 17, 2011.
Nay		H.R. 514 (112th): FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011 Bill Passed 86/12 on Feb. 15, 2011.
Nay		H.R. 4853 (111th): Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 Motion Agreed to 81/19 on Dec. 15, 2010. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111–312, H.R. 4853, 124 Stat. 3296, enacted December 17, 2010), also known …
Nay		H.R. 2419 (110th): Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 Bill Passed 79/14 on Dec. 14, 2007. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Pub.L. 110–234, H.R. 2419, 122 Stat. 923, enacted May 22, 2008, also known as the 2008 U.S. …
Yea		On the Nomination PN177: Gen. George W. Casey, Jr., in the Army, to be General Nomination Confirmed 83/14 on Feb. 8, 2007.

Missed Votes

From Feb 1983 to May 2013, Lautenberg missed 359 of 9,614 roll call votes, which is 3.7%. This is worse than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of senators serving in May 2013. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absences, major life events, and running for higher office.

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
• Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills