John Sarbanes, Representative for Maryland's 3rd Congressional District

Sarbanes is the representative for Maryland’s 3^rd congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 4, 2007. Sarbanes’s current term ends on Jan 3, 2019.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 Report Card for Sarbanes.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Sarbanes is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives 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 Sarbanes has sponsored and cosponsored. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

American Civil Liberties Union: 100% Human Rights Campaign: 100% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 100% League of Conservation Voters: 96% NIAC Action: A The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: B United States Chamber of Commerce: 36% NumbersUSA: 17% FreedomWorks: 15% The Club for Growth: 10% Americans for Prosperity: 3%

Committee Membership

John Sarbanes sits on the following committees:

House Committee on Energy and Commerce
- Member, Subcommittee on Energy
- Member, Subcommittee on Health
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
- Member, Subcommittee on National Security

Enacted Legislation

Sarbanes was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:

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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

Sarbanes sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (47%) Health (29%) Energy (12%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (12%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Sarbanes’s Vote	Vote Description
Nay	H.R. 1695: Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017 Apr 26, 2017. Passed 378/48. This bill would change the appointment process for the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, known as the Register of Copyrights. Currently the Register of Copyrights is hired by the Librarian of Congress (who is the head of the Library of Congress). This bill would ...
No	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 ... Feb 16, 2017. Passed 230/188. 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 ...
No	S. 612: A bill to designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 1300 Victoria Street in Laredo, Texas, as the “George P. Kazen Federal Building ... Dec 8, 2016. Passed 360/61.
No	H.R. 2146: Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act Jun 18, 2015. Passed 218/208. This vote made H.R. 2146 the vehicle for passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal currently being negotiated. H.R. 2146 was originally introduced as a bill to address issues with retirement funds of federal law enforcement officers and firefighters. ...
Yea	H.R. 2048: Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring Act of 2015 May 13, 2015. Passed 338/88. The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of ...
No	H.R. 1731: National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act of 2015 Apr 23, 2015. Passed 355/63.
Aye	H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 Sep 17, 2014. Passed 319/108.
Nay	H.R. 1765 (113th): Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013 Apr 26, 2013. Passed 361/41.
Nay	H.R. 3630 (112th): Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 Feb 17, 2012. Passed 293/132.
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 ...
No	H.R. 5349 (110th): To extend the Protect America Act of 2007 for 21 days. Feb 13, 2008. Failed 191/229.

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to Nov 2018, Sarbanes missed 113 of 8,796 roll call votes, which is 1.3%. This is better than the median of 2.4% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
2007 Jan-Mar	213	4	1.9%	54^th
2007 Apr-Jun	393	4	1.0%	35^th
2007 Jul-Sep	317	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Oct-Dec	263	1	0.4%	11^th
2008 Jan-Mar	149	3	2.0%	33^rd
2008 Apr-Jun	321	1	0.3%	9^th
2008 Jul-Sep	205	1	0.5%	15^th
2008 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Jan-Mar	174	6	3.4%	68^th
2009 Apr-Jun	303	6	2.0%	45^th
2009 Jul-Sep	268	4	1.5%	44^th
2009 Oct-Dec	246	3	1.2%	27^th
2010 Jan-Mar	195	7	3.6%	59^th
2010 Apr-Jun	219	4	1.8%	38^th
2010 Jul-Sep	151	1	0.7%	21^st
2010 Nov-Dec	99	2	2.0%	36^th
2011 Jan-Mar	212	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Apr-Jun	281	1	0.4%	18^th
2011 Jul-Sep	247	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Oct-Dec	208	2	1.0%	37^th
2012 Jan-Mar	151	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Apr-Jun	299	3	1.0%	40^th
2012 Jul-Sep	152	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Nov-Dec	51	1	2.0%	38^th
2013 Jan-Jan	5	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Mar	89	1	1.1%	42^nd
2013 Apr-Jun	215	20	9.3%	92^nd
2013 Jul-Sep	200	5	2.5%	68^th
2013 Oct-Dec	137	1	0.7%	30^th
2014 Jan-Mar	148	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Apr-Jun	219	2	0.9%	35^th
2014 Jul-Sep	147	1	0.7%	28^th
2014 Nov-Dec	49	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Jan-Mar	144	1	0.7%	26^th
2015 Apr-Jun	244	12	4.9%	85^th
2015 Jul-Sep	139	2	1.4%	53^rd
2015 Oct-Dec	177	3	1.7%	61^st
2016 Jan-Mar	137	3	2.2%	44^th
2016 Apr-Jun	204	1	0.5%	19^th
2016 Jul-Sep	232	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Nov-Dec	48	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	208	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Apr-Jun	136	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jul-Sep	199	1	0.5%	37^th
2017 Oct-Dec	167	1	0.6%	24^th
2018 Jan-Mar	129	3	2.3%	50^th
2018 Apr-Jun	184	1	0.5%	17^th
2018 Jul-Sep	102	0	0.0%	0^th
2018 Nov-Nov	5	1	20.0%	72^nd

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

John Sarbanes is pronounced:

jon // sar-BAYN

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In
AR ar	bar
AY ay	say
B b	bat
J j	jam
N n	not
O o	top
S s	sit

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Rep. John Sarbanes

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