Sen. Norm Coleman
Former Senator for Minnesota
Coleman was a senator from Minnesota and was a Republican. He served from 2003 to 2008.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Coleman is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2008 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 Coleman sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 2003 to Dec 11, 2008. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Coleman was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- S. 1937 (110th): A bill to authorize additional funds for emergency repairs and reconstruction of the Interstate I-35 bridge located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that collapsed on August 1, 2007, to …
- S. 3990 (109th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 216 Oak Street in Farmington, Minnesota, as the “Hamilton H. Judson Post Office”.
- S. 2057 (108th): A bill to require the Secretary of Defense to reimburse members of the United States Armed Forces for certain transportation expenses incurred by the members in connection …
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 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Coleman sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (20%) Health (14%) Science, Technology, Communications (14%) Economics and Public Finance (12%) Social Welfare (11%) Law (11%) Commerce (9%) International Affairs (9%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Coleman recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 3559 (110th): Continuing Coverage Act of 2008
- S. 3460 (110th): State Cyber Security Protection Act of 2008
- S. 3450 (110th): A bill to provide for the rescission of funds made available for …
- S. 3377 (110th): Small Marine Business and Fishing Guide Relief Act of 2008
- S. 3126 (110th): Energy Resource Development Act of 2008
- S.Res. 552 (110th): A resolution recognizing the 150th anniversary of the State of Minnesota.
- S. 2843 (110th): Medicaid Levy Enhancement Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2003 to Dec 2008, Coleman missed 53 of 1,977 roll call votes, which is 2.7%. This is on par with the median of 2.2% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2008. 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills