Sen. James Risch
Senator for Idaho
pronounced jaymz // rish
Risch is the junior senator from Idaho and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 6, 2009. Risch is next up for reelection in 2026 and serves until Jan 3, 2027. He is 81 years old.
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2024 Report Card for Risch.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Risch is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate 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 legislators have sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2021 to Mar 14, 2025. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Sen. James Risch [R-ID, 2009-2026] sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Risch was the primary sponsor of 17 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 3809 (118th): Electronic Medical Records for Foreign Service Personnel Act of 2024
- S. 1325 (118th): Western Hemisphere Partnership Act of 2023
- S. 1240 (118th): Millennium Challenge Corporation Candidate Country Reform Act
- S. 1617 (117th): Disaster Assistance for Rural Communities Act
- S. 4320 (117th): Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 2022
- S. 816 (117th): Diplomatic Support and Security Act of 2022
- S. 904 (117th): Modernizing Access to Our Public Land Act
Does 17 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
Risch sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (68%) Commerce (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Risch recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 1054: A bill to abolish the United States African Development Foundation.
- S. 884: A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require the …
- S.Res. 116: A resolution celebrating the extraordinary accomplishments and vital role of women business owners …
- S. 860: A bill to modify the information about countries exporting methamphetamine that is included …
- S. 771: A bill to terminate the Shelter and Services Program of the Federal Emergency …
- S.Res. 98: A resolution condemning Beijing’s destruction of Hong Kong’s democracy and rule of law.
- S. 707: A bill to provide that sanctuary jurisdictions that provide benefits to aliens who …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2009 to Mar 2025, Risch missed 190 of 5,423 roll call votes, which is 3.5%. This is worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absences, 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
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills