Sen. Christopher Murphy

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Murphy.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

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

Committee Membership

Christopher Murphy sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Appropriations
  • Homeland Security subcommittee Chair

  Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, 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
• Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

Enacted Legislation

Murphy was the primary sponsor of 14 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 5230 (117th): Billy’s Law
• S. 5029 (117th): Help Find the Missing Act
• S. 4678 (117th): Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2023
• S. 4122 (117th): Housatonic Wild and Scenic River Act of 2022
• S. 3416 (117th): Protecting Patients from Counterfeit Medical Devices Act
• S. 753 (117th): Highlands Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2021
• S. 3058 (117th): Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2022

View All »

Does 14 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

Murphy sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (29%) Education (20%) International Affairs (16%) Government Operations and Politics (9%) Crime and Law Enforcement (8%) Labor and Employment (7%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Social Welfare (4%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Murphy recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 951: A bill to establish the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and for other …
• S.Res. 109: A resolution requesting information on Saudi Arabia’s human rights practices pursuant to section …
• S. 795: Agricultural Management Assistance Act of 2023
• S. 663: Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act
• S. 494: Background Check Expansion Act
• S. 406: Promoting Public Health Information Act
• S. 325: Supreme Court Ethics Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Mar 2023, Murphy missed 33 of 3,503 roll call votes, which is 0.9%. 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
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills