Sen. Benjamin Cardin

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Cardin.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Cardin 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 Cardin has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Mar 30, 2023. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Benjamin Cardin sits on the following committees:

• Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe Chair
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair
• Senate Committee on Finance
  • Health Care subcommittee Chair

  International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness, Taxation and IRS Oversight subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Enacted Legislation

Cardin was the primary sponsor of 44 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 5229 (117th): A bill to direct the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to remove the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of …
• S. 4900 (117th): SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022
• S. 4558 (117th): Cleaner, Quieter Airplanes Act
• S. 3492 (117th): A bill to address the importance of foreign affairs training in national security, and for other purposes.
• S. 3493 (117th): Drug Shortages Shelf Life Extension Act
• S. 1104 (117th): Haiti Development, Accountability, and Institutional Transparency Initiative Act
• S. 2068 (117th): Minority Business Development Act of 2021

View All »

Does 44 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Cardin sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (25%) Commerce (20%) Health (17%) Taxation (13%) Government Operations and Politics (8%) Crime and Law Enforcement (8%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (5%) Education (4%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Cardin recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 1084: A bill to eliminate racial, religious, and other discriminatory profiling by law enforcement, …
• S. 1061: A bill to prospectively repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.
• S.Con.Res. 7: A concurrent resolution condemning Russia’s unjust and arbitrary detention of Russian opposition leader …
• S. 924: A bill to amend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Development Act to extend …
• S. 667: TRUE EQUITY Act
• S. 657: Neighborhood Homes Investment Act
• S. 639: Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act of 2023

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to Mar 2023, Cardin missed 42 of 5,342 roll call votes, which is 0.8%. This is better than the median of 2.3% 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 absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

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
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills