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Sen. Robert (Bob) Menéndez [D-NJ]
U.S. Senator, New Jersey

Track Robert Menéndez

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Outside Links

The following external websites may be of interest:

Robert Menéndez’s Official Website

Biography from the official Congressional Biographical Directory

Campaign Contributions tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics

State:	New Jersey [map]
Party:	Democrat
Birthday:	Jan 1, 1954 / 56 years old

To contact Robert Menéndez, visit his official website. (Read our tips for communicating with Congress.) See the Project Vote Smart page for Menéndez for more biographical and issue information.

Official YouTube Feed

“Senator Menendez Questions Peter Orszag In Finance Committee” - Feb 9, 2010 9:32 PM. Watch Video.

On the Floor

Watch Senate proceeding 10-28-09 2:39:30 to 2:49:05 at MetaVid. More Videos | Congressional Record

Congressional Service

Below are the past and present terms in the Senate, House, and White House held by Robert Menéndez:

When	Role	Representing
2006-2012	U.S. Senator	New Jersey	(Most Recent Term Began in 2007) (was preceeded by Jon Corzine)
1993-2006	U.S. Representative	New Jersey’s 13^th	(was preceeded by James Saxton)

Sponsorship Analysis

Menéndez is a far-left Democrat according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship.

These labels come from the Political Spectrum statistical analysis that we have carried out. The statistical analysis puts members of Congress on a scale based on patterns of bill sponsorship, and is blind to party affiliation and the content of bills. From there, we have somewhat arbitrarily divided the Members of Congress into far-left/right, rank-and-file, and moderate (i.e. centrist). For each party, the most extreme 23% of Members of Congress are labeled far-left or -right. The most centrist 30% (i.e. those closest to the other party) are labeled moderate. The remaining 47% are labeled as rank-and-file.

Menéndez is somewhere between a leader and a follower. Menéndez sponsors others’ bills and other Members of Congress cosponsor Menéndez’s bills. For more, see congressional statistics.

To compute the leader-follower score for Menéndez, we make a table that lists all other Members of Congress. Each row has the number bills sponsored by Menéndez and cosponsored by the other Member of Congress divided by the number of bills sponsored by the other Member of Congress and cosponsored by Menéndez.

This is a measure of who is following who. The higher the number, the more times others are cosponsoring Menéndez's bills without Menéndez returning the favor. We then take the mean of (the logorithms of) these ratios. Thanks to Joe Barillari for the idea.

Voting Record

Robert Menéndez missed 287 (3%) of 9104 votes since Jan 5, 1993. The graph to the left shows the number of missed votes over time. Click for a larger chart and a list of recent votes.

Money & Influence

The top campaign contribution to Menéndez in 2007-2008 was $96,850 from employees of Lowenstein, Sandler et al. Robert Menéndez’s net worth was between $202,004 and $579,999 in 2007, according to Menéndez’s mandated financial disclosure statements. For more information, see the Center for Responsive Politics’ page for Menéndez.

Committee Membership

Robert Menéndez sits on the following committees:

Member, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Chairman, Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development

Member, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions

Member, Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment

Member, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Member, Subcommittee on Energy

Member, Subcommittee on National Parks

Member, Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests

Member, Senate Committee on Finance

Member, Subcommittee on Health Care

Member, Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness

Member, Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-term Growth

Member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Chairman, Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection

Member, Subcommittee on European Affairs

Member, Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues

Member, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps and Global Narcotics Affairs

Member, Senate Committee on the Budget

Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Robert Menéndez has sponsored 268 bills since Jan 5, 1993 of which 255 haven't made it out of committee and 3 were successfully enacted. Menéndez has co-sponsored 1925 bills during the same time period. (The count of enacted bills considers only bills actually sponsored by Menéndez and companion bills identified by CRS that were themselves enacted, but not if they were incorporated into other bills, as that information is not readily available.)

Some of Menéndez’s most recently sponsored bills include...

	S. 1696: Green Gaming Act of 2009
	S.Res. 274: A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Peace Day.
	S.Res. 269: A resolution designating the week beginning September 20, 2009, as "National Hispanic Serving Institutions Week".
	S.Con.Res. 39: A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Congress that stable and affordable housing is an essential component of an effective strategy for the prevention, treatment, and care of human immunodeficiency virus, and that the United States should make a commitment to providing adequate funding for the development of housing as a response to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome pandemic.
	S.Res. 268: A resolution recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrating the heritage and culture of Latinos in the United States and their immense contributions to the Nation.

View All... (including bills from previous years)

Photo from the Congressional Pictorial Directory.

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