Sen. Mark Begich

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2014 Report Card for Begich.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Begich 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 Begich sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2009 to Dec 12, 2014. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Begich was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:

• S. 1474 (113th): Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act of 2014
• S. 2444 (113th): Howard Coble Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014
• S. 2258 (113th): Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2014
• S. 2251 (112th): A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 709 West 9th Street, Juneau, Alaska, as the Robert Boochever United States Courthouse.
• S. 1710 (112th): A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 222 West 7th Avenue, Anchorage, Alaska, as the James M. Fitzgerald United States Courthouse.

View All »

Does 5 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

Begich sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (23%) Transportation and Public Works (14%) Health (13%) Energy (11%) Science, Technology, Communications (11%) Taxation (11%) Education (10%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (8%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Begich recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 2991 (113th): Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2014
• S. 2961 (113th): Office of Planning for Future Intercity Transportation Act
• S. 2957 (113th): Do Not Disturb Act of 2014
• S. 2875 (113th): National Guard Investigations Transparency and Improvement Act of 2014
• S. 2800 (113th): Patient Centered Quality Care for Life Act
• S. 2716 (113th): Aleut Confinement and Relocation Sites Study Act
• S. 2705 (113th): Renewable Energy Environmental Research Act of 2014

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2009 to Dec 2014, Begich missed 80 of 1,839 roll call votes, which is 4.4%. 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, 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
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills