Christopher Murphy, Senator for Connecticut

Murphy is the junior senator from Connecticut and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Murphy’s current term ends on Jan 3, 2019.

He was previously the representative for Connecticut’s 5^th congressional district as a Democrat from 2007 to 2012.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 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 liberal–conservative 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. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Human Rights Campaign: 100% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 100% League of Conservation Voters: 96% American Civil Liberties Union: 88% NIAC Action: B The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: B United States Chamber of Commerce: 41% NumbersUSA: 15% Americans for Prosperity: 2% The Club for Growth: 0% FreedomWorks: 0%

Committee Membership

Christopher Murphy sits on the following committees:

Senate Committee on Appropriations
- Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
- Member, Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
- Member, Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
- Member, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
- Member, Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
- Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation
- Member, Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy
- Member, Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
- Member, Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety
- Member, Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security

Enacted Legislation

Murphy was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:

View All »

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:

Education (21%) International Affairs (20%) Finance and Financial Sector (14%) Health (12%) Taxation (9%) Government Operations and Politics (9%) Armed Forces and National Security (7%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Murphy’s Vote	Vote Description
Yea	On the Nomination PN1620: Charles P. Rettig, of California, to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the term expiring November 12, 2022 Sep 12, 2018. Nomination Confirmed 64/33.
Nay	S. 89: A bill to amend title 46, United States Code, to exempt old vessels that only operate within inland waterways from the fire-retardant materials requirement if the ... Apr 3, 2017. Bill Passed 85/12.
Nay	H.J.Res. 43: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule submitted by Secretary of Health and Human Services relating ... Mar 30, 2017. Joint Resolution Passed 51/50. Joe Biden never got the opportunity to break a single 50-50 Senate tie in eight years as vice president. Mike Pence has already broken two. One from last month has since become law: a measure allowing states to withhold federal Planned Parenthood funding. (The other ...
Yea	H.R. 5325: Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017 Sep 28, 2016. Bill Passed 72/26. The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations bill which extended funding at the previous year's levels up to December 9, 2016 (10 weeks). After this, a continuing ...
Yea	H.R. 22: Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act Dec 3, 2015. Conference Report Agreed to 83/16. H.R 22, formerly the Hire More Heroes Act, has become the Senate’s vehicle for passage of the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act or DRIVE Act (S. 1647). The DRIVE Act is a major bipartisan transportation bill that would authorize funding ...
Nay	S. 1177: Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 Jul 16, 2015. Bill Passed 81/17. The Every Child Achieves Act is a bipartisan educational policy reform bill that would expand state responsibility over schools, provide grants to charter schools, and reduce the federal test-based accountability system of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The bill was referred to the ...
No	H.R. 6233 (112th): Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012 Aug 2, 2012. Passed 223/197.
Aye	H.R. 1249 (112th): Leahy-Smith America Invents Act Jun 23, 2011. Passed 304/117. The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on September 16, 2011. The law represents the most significant legislative change to the U.S. patent system since the ...
Nay	H.R. 2499 (111th): Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2010 Apr 29, 2010. Passed 223/169.
Nay	H.Res. 317 (111th): Recognizing the region from Manhattan, Kansas, to Columbia, Missouri, as the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, and ... Sep 15, 2009. Passed 312/108.
Nay	H.R. 31 (111th): Lumbee Recognition Act Jun 3, 2009. Passed 240/179.

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Dec 2018, Murphy missed 10 of 1,746 roll call votes, which is 0.6%. This is better than the median of 1.5% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
2013 Jan-Mar	92	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Apr-Jun	76	1	1.3%	36^th
2013 Jul-Sep	43	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Oct-Dec	80	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Jan-Mar	93	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Apr-Jun	123	2	1.6%	42^nd
2014 Jul-Sep	54	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Nov-Dec	96	1	1.0%	50^th
2015 Jan-Mar	135	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Apr-Jun	85	1	1.2%	46^th
2015 Jul-Sep	52	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Oct-Dec	67	1	1.5%	47^th
2016 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Apr-Jun	79	1	1.3%	45^th
2016 Jul-Sep	34	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Nov-Dec	12	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	101	2	2.0%	80^th
2017 Apr-Jun	54	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jul-Sep	53	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Oct-Dec	117	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Apr-Jun	80	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Jul-Sep	75	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Oct-Dec	44	1	2.3%	77^th

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

Christopher Murphy is pronounced:

KRIS-tuh-fer // MER-fee

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In
EE ee	meet
ER er	her
F f	fat
I i	pin
K k	king
M m	man
R r	rag
S s	sit
T t	top
UH uh	cup

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Sen. Christopher Murphy

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