Sen. Christopher Coons

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2020 Report Card for Coons.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Coons 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 Coons has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Oct 21, 2021. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Christopher Coons sits on the following committees:

• Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chair
• Senate Committee on Appropriations
  • State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs subcommittee Chair

  Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy subcommittee Chair

  Africa and Global Health Policy, East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, Europe and Regional Security Cooperation subcommittees
• Senate Committee on the Judiciary
  • Privacy, Technology, and the Law subcommittee Chair

  Human Rights and the Law, Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, Intellectual Property subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Enacted Legislation

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

• S. 3953 (116th): FLIGHT Act
• S. 3519 (116th): A bill to authorize the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to subsidize payments on loans guaranteed under the 7(a) and 504 loan programs or made using …
• S. 999 (116th): Sustainable Chemistry Research and Development Act of 2019
• S. 2354 (116th): Expanding Findings for Federal Opioid Research and Treatment Act
• S. 1427 (116th): Global Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing Act of 2019
• S. 727 (116th): Global Fragility Act of 2019
• S. 590 (116th): Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act

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

Coons sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (24%) Commerce (20%) Labor and Employment (13%) Science, Technology, Communications (10%) Education (9%) Taxation (8%) Health (8%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (8%)

Recent Bills

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

• S. 2956: Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Act of 2021
• S.Res. 414: A resolution designating October 16, 2021, and October 16, 2022, as “World Food …
• S.Res. 415: A resolution designating the week beginning on October 10, 2021, as “National Wildlife …
• S.Res. 416: A resolution designating the week of October 17 through 23, 2021, as “National …
• S.Res. 394: A resolution recognizing the 25th anniversary of Radio Free Asia and its mission …
• S. 2873: PATHS Act
• S. 2662: Industrial Finance Corporation Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Nov 2010 to Oct 2021, Coons missed 81 of 3,440 roll call votes, which is 2.4%. This is on par with the median of 1.7% 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.

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