Sanders is the junior senator from Vermont and is an Independent caucusing with the Democrats. He has served since Jan 4, 2007. Sanders is next up for reelection in 2024.
He was previously the representative for Vermont’s at-large district as an Independent caucusing with the Democrats from 1991 to 2006.
Sanders is running for President of the United States. We’re tracking the legislative records of the candidates who served in office:
- What can GovTrack data tell us about the thirteen most recent and current Members of Congress running for President? [updated May 3, 2019]
- Health and Criminal Justice legislation introduced by the candidates [updated May 1, 2019]
- Oversight and Immigration legislation introduced by the candiates [updated May 20, 2019]
- Finance and Economy legislation introduced by the candidates [update May 31, 2019]
![Photo of Sen. Bernard “Bernie” Sanders [I-VT]](/static/legislator-photos/400357-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2019 Report Card for Sanders.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Sanders is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Sanders has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to May 7, 2020. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Bernard “Bernie” Sanders sits on the following committees:
- Senate Committee on the Budget Ranking Member
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Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
- Primary Health and Retirement Security subcommittee Ranking Member
Children and Families subcommittees -
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
- Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
- Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Enacted Legislation
Sanders was the primary sponsor of 7 bills that were enacted:
- S. 885 (113th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 35 Park Street in Danville, Vermont, as the “Thaddeus Stevens Post Office”.
- S. 2782 (113th): A bill to amend title 36, United States Code, to improve the Federal charter for the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and for other ...
- S. 893 (113th): Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2013
- H.R. 5245 (109th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1 Marble Street in Fair Haven, Vermont, as the “Matthew Lyon Post Office Building”.
- H.J.Res. 129 (104th): Granting the consent of Congress to the Vermont-New Hampshire Interstate Public Water Supply Compact.
- H.R. 1353 (102nd): Entitled the “Taconic Mountains Protection Act of 1991”.
- H.J.Res. 132 (102nd): To designate March 4, 1991, as “Vermont Bicentennial Day”.
Does 7 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
Sanders sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (26%) Labor and Employment (21%) Taxation (17%) Finance and Financial Sector (9%) Environmental Protection (8%) Energy (8%) International Affairs (6%) Government Operations and Politics (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Sanders’s most recently sponsored bills include...
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2007 to May 2020, Sanders missed 548 of 4,109 roll call votes, which is 13.3%. This is much worse than the median of 1.4% 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 and major life events. Legislators running for president or vice president typically miss votes while on the campaign trail — that’s normal. See our analysis of presidential candidates’ missed votes.
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
