Sen. Thomas “Tom” Daschle
Former Senator for South Dakota
Daschle was a senator from South Dakota and was a Democrat. He served from 1987 to 2004.
He was previously the representative for South Dakota’s at-large district as a Democrat from 1983 to 1986; and the representative for South Dakota’s 1st congressional district as a Democrat from 1979 to 1982.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Daschle is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2004 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 Daschle sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1999 to Dec 8, 2004. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Daschle was the primary sponsor of 27 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S.J.Res. 53 (107th): A joint resolution relative to the convening of the first session of the One Hundred Eighth Congress.
- S. 2578 (107th): Debt Limit bill
- S. 1450 (107th): Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act
- S.J.Res. 22 (107th): A joint resolution expressing the sense of the Senate and House of Representatives regarding the terrorist attacks launched against the Unites States on September 11, 2001.
- S.J.Res. 23 (107th): Authorization for Use of Military Force
- S. 1426 (107th): 2001 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Recovery from and Response to Terrorist Attacks on the United States
- S.J.Res. 16 (107th): A joint resolution approving the extension of nondiscriminatory treatment to the products of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
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
Daschle sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (20%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Law (13%) Commerce (12%) Health (11%) Finance and Financial Sector (10%) Labor and Employment (10%) Social Welfare (9%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Daschle recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 2938 (108th): A bill to grant a Federal charter to the National American Indian …
- S. 2851 (108th): A bill to amend the Farm Credit Act of 1971 to establish …
- S.Res. 425 (108th): A resolution honoring former President William Jefferson Clinton on the occasion of …
- S. 2791 (108th): National Guard and Reserve Bill of Rights Act of 2004
- S.Res. 421 (108th): A resolution expressing outrage at the recent terrorist atrocities in Beslan, Russian …
- S. 2770 (108th): A bill to establish a National Commission on American Indian Trust Holdings.
- S. 2769 (108th): A bill to provide that imported ethanol shall not count toward satisfaction …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1987 to Dec 2004, Daschle missed 84 of 6,222 roll call votes, which is 1.4%. This is better than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2004. 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