Is Your Senator Among the 10 Most Absent of 2009?
The following are the Top 10 Absentee Senators in the U.S. Senate during 2009:
1. Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia – absent for 159 of the 397 roll-call votes in the Senate during the year 2009
2. Democrat John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia – absent for 58 Senate roll-call votes
3. Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire – absent for 43 votes
4. Democrat Barbara Mikulski of Maryland – absent for 42 votes
5. Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky – absent for 31 votes
6. Republican Mike Johanns of Nebraska – absent for 26 votes
7. Democrat Mary Landrieu of Louisiana – absent for 25 votes
8. Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas – absent for 25 votes
9. Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama – absent for 20 votes
10. Republican Kit Bond of Missouri – absent for 20 votes
This top 10 in absenteeism only counts current members of the Senate — those who left the Senate early by ascent (such as Hillary Clinton) or death (such as Edward Kennedy) have high absence from Senate proceedings for nonvoluntary reasons. Further, Senators who replaced departures (such as George LeMieux) don’t have the votes before they were sworn in counted against them, since they couldn’t cast votes in those cases (Senator LeMieux, by the way, has attended every single roll-call vote since his swearing-in).
A number of the Senators featured in this top 10 list were sidelined due to impairments of their health. Some might call it unfair to call Robert Byrd out for his absenteeism since it is not his “fault,” but such objections miss the point, since Senator Byrd and others who are functionally impaired from carrying out the job they were elected to carry out nevertheless choose to keep their seats and prevent others from doing the necessary work. As for other absentee Senators such as Mary Landrieu and Jay Rockefeller, who possess the benefit of fine health and the habit of speaking as often as possible with journalists and pundits, what is their excuse for professional inattention?
