Sen. Chris Van Hollen

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Van Hollen.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Van Hollen 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 Van Hollen has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Sep 27, 2023. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Chris Van Hollen sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Appropriations
  • Financial Services and General Government subcommittee Chair

  Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, Legislative Branch, State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  • East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy subcommittee Chair

  Africa and Global Health Policy, Europe and Regional Security Cooperation subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
  Economic Policy, Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, National Security and International Trade and Finance subcommittees
• Senate Committee on the Budget

Enacted Legislation

Van Hollen was the primary sponsor of 11 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 1294 (117th): Protecting American Intellectual Property Act of 2022
• S. 4685 (117th): Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2023
• S. 3179 (117th): Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2022
• S.J.Res. 15 (117th): A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Office of the Comptroller of …
• S. 2591 (116th): Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense Act of 2019
• S. 1218 (116th): World War I Valor Medals Review Act
• S. 946 (116th): Henrietta Lacks Enhancing Cancer Research Act of 2019

View All »

Does 11 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

Van Hollen sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (23%) Finance and Financial Sector (17%) International Affairs (16%) Health (15%) Education (8%) Taxation (7%) Armed Forces and National Security (7%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Van Hollen recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 2886: Updated Drug Labeling for Patient Safety Act
• S. 2725: A bill to authorize the establishment of the US-ASEAN Center to support United …
• S. 2620: Chesapeake National Recreation Area Act
• S. 2485: Henrietta Lacks Congressional Gold Medal Act
• S. 2348: Payments Modernization Act of 2023
• S. 2309: Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024
• S. 2217: IDEA Full Funding Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2017 to Sep 2023, Van Hollen missed 56 of 2,502 roll call votes, which is 2.2%. This is on par with the median of 2.4% 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, 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
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills