Rep. Virginia Smith

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Smith is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1990 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 Smith sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1985 to Oct 27, 1990. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Smith was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:

• H.R. 3130 (98th): A bill to authorize amendments to certain repayment and water service contracts for the Frenchman unit of the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin program.
• H.R. 2509 (98th): Saccharin Study and Labeling Act Amendment of 1983
• H.R. 3829 (97th): Saccharin Study and Labeling Act Amendments of 1981

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Does 3 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

Smith sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Agriculture and Food (20%) Environmental Protection (16%) Taxation (14%) Government Operations and Politics (11%) Labor and Employment (11%) Transportation and Public Works (11%) Water Resources Development (11%) Private Legislation (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Smith recently introduced the following legislation:

• H.R. 5745 (101st): For the relief of Nebraska Aluminum Castings, Inc.
• H.R. 4218 (101st): Environmental Reserve Program Act of 1990
• H.R. 2923 (101st): To amend the Internal Revenue Code to extend the one year deferment …
• H.R. 2903 (101st): To amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to set a lower financial …
• H.R. 2736 (101st): Platte River Preservation Act
• H.R. 2735 (101st): Rural Electrification Amendment Act of 1989
• H.R. 2438 (101st): To authorize amendments to a certain water service contract for the Frenchman …

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1975 to Oct 1990, Smith missed 301 of 8,540 roll call votes, which is 3.5%. This is better than the median of 4.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1990. 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
• 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
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills