Sen. John Barrasso

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 Report Card for Barrasso.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Barrasso 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 Barrasso has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Jan 21, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

John Barrasso sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chair
  Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight, Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
  National Parks, Public Lands, Forests, and Mining, Water and Power subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Enacted Legislation

Barrasso was the primary sponsor of 12 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 990: Platte River Recovery Implementation Program Extension Act
• S. 1061: John F. Kennedy Center Reauthorization Act of 2019
• S. 268: Wildlife Innovation and Longevity Driver Act
• S. 512 (115th): Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act
• S. 40: Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act
• S. 199: A bill to authorize the use of the active capacity of the Fontenelle Reservoir.
• S. 2717 (114th): DRIFT Act of 2016

View All »

Does 12 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

Barrasso sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Native Americans (19%) Energy (16%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (14%) Water Resources Development (14%) Environmental Protection (13%) Health (11%) Transportation and Public Works (6%) Taxation (6%)

Recent Bills

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

• S. 3047: Creating Opportunities And Leveraging Technologies for Coal Carbon Act of 2019
• S. 3051: America’s Conservation Enhancement Act
• S. 2917: Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019
• S. 2662: Growing American Innovation Now Act
• S. 2302: America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019
• S. 2262: Expedited Disability Insurance Payments for Terminally Ill Individuals Act of 2019
• S. 2194: PREDATORS Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

As Senate Republican Conference Chair, Barrasso may be focused on his responsibilities other than introducing legislation, such as setting the chamber’s agenda, uniting his party, and brokering deals.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jun 2007 to Jan 2020, Barrasso missed 18 of 3,825 roll call votes, which is 0.5%. This is better 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.

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