Thune is the senior senator from South Dakota and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 4, 2005. Thune is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.
He is also Senate Minority Whip, a party leadership role. Party leaders focus more on setting their party’s legislative priorties than on introducing legislation.
He was previously the representative for South Dakota’s at-large district as a Republican from 1997 to 2002.
![Photo of Sen. John Thune [R-SD]](/static/legislator-photos/400546-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 Report Card for Thune.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Thune 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 Thune has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Oct 21, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
John Thune sits on the following committees:
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Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- Communications, Media, and Broadband subcommittee Ranking Member
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Senate Committee on Finance
- Taxation and IRS Oversight subcommittee Ranking Member
- Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Enacted Legislation
Thune was the primary sponsor of 40 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 189: Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2021
- S. 4444 (116th): Missouri River Basin Drought and Snowpack Monitoring Act
- S. 151 (116th): Pallone-Thune TRACED Act
- S. 100 (116th): Custer County Airport Conveyance Act
- S. 2200 (115th): National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act of 2018
- S. 3367 (115th): Department of Transportation Reports Harmonization Act
- S. 3143 (115th): National Quantum Initiative Act
Does 40 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 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Thune sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Taxation (24%) Science, Technology, Communications (17%) Agriculture and Food (13%) Transportation and Public Works (12%) Health (11%) Native Americans (9%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (8%) Labor and Employment (5%)
Recent Bills
Some of Thune’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 2959: Supplemental Impact Aid Flexibility Act
- S. 2742: Recovering Fraudulent Claims Act
- S. 2716: American Beef Labeling Act of 2021
- S. 2576: RUSH Act of 2021
- S. 2484: Conservation Reserve Program Flexibility Act of 2021
- S. 2437: Expediting Forest Restoration and Recovery Act of 2021
- S.Res. 287: A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States must …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
As Senate Minority Whip, Thune 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 Jan 2005 to Oct 2021, Thune missed 52 of 5,387 roll call votes, which is 1.0%. This is better than 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.
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
