Jon Tester, Senator for Montana

Tester is the senior senator from Montana and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 4, 2007. Tester is next up for reelection in 2018.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 Report Card for Tester.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Tester 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 Tester has sponsored and cosponsored. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 100% Human Rights Campaign: 80% The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: B+ American Civil Liberties Union: 64% United States Chamber of Commerce: 47% NumbersUSA: 44% NIAC Action: D The Club for Growth: 12% Americans for Prosperity: 11% League of Conservation Voters: 3% FreedomWorks: 0%

Committee Membership

Jon Tester sits on the following committees:

Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Senate Committee on Appropriations
- Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Department of Homeland Security
- Member, Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
- Member, Subcommittee on Department of Defense
- Member, Subcommittee on Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
- Member, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
- Member, Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
- Member, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection
- Member, Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- Member, Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
- Member, Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Enacted Legislation

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

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 about one third or more 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

Tester sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (33%) Government Operations and Politics (20%) Native Americans (17%) Education (10%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (8%) Health (6%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Tester’s Vote	Vote Description
Nay	S. 139: FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 Jan 18, 2018. Motion Agreed to 65/34. This bill became the vehicle for passage of the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017. The bill would extend so-called "section 702" government surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The bill was originally introduced and passed the Senate in 2017 as the Rapid DNA ...
Yea	H.R. 5325: Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017 Sep 28, 2016. Bill Passed 72/26.
Nay	S. 2328: National Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act of 2015 Jun 29, 2016. Motion Agreed to 68/30. The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) —designated as Pub.L. 114–187 and originally as H.R. 5278— is a federal law enacted by the United States Congress that establishes an oversight board, a process for restructuring debt, and expedited procedures for approving critical ...
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. 754: Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 Oct 27, 2015. Bill Passed 74/21. After years of delay and false starts, Congress may finally be on the verge of passing a bill to address Internet data breaches and cybersecurity. The Senate is once again debating the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S. 754), or CISA, and it appears to have ...
Yea	H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 Sep 18, 2014. Joint Resolution Passed 78/22.
Nay	H.R. 3080 (112th): United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act Oct 12, 2011. Bill Passed 83/15.
Nay	H.R. 514 (112th): FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011 Feb 15, 2011. Bill Passed 86/12.
Yea	H.R. 4853 (111th): Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 Dec 15, 2010. Motion Agreed to 81/19. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111–312, H.R. 4853, 124 Stat. 3296, enacted December 17, 2010), also known as the 2010 Tax Relief Act, was passed by the United States Congress on December 16, 2010, and signed into ...
Nay	H.R. 1424 (110th): Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 Oct 1, 2008. Bill Passed 74/25. This bill became the vehicle for passage of economic stimulus relief during the 2008 financial crisis as well as other unrelated provisions. It was the Senate's October 2008 plan, and it became law. The bill contains sections for: * Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 ...

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to Apr 2018, Tester missed 28 of 3,402 roll call votes, which is 0.8%. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
2007 Jan-Mar	126	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Apr-Jun	112	2	1.8%	66^th
2007 Jul-Sep	119	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Oct-Dec	85	0	0.0%	0^th
2008 Jan-Mar	85	0	0.0%	0^th
2008 Apr-Jun	77	2	2.6%	57^th
2008 Jul-Sep	47	3	6.4%	71^st
2008 Oct-Dec	6	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Jan-Mar	118	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Apr-Jun	96	1	1.0%	45^th
2009 Jul-Sep	89	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Oct-Dec	94	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Jan-Mar	108	2	1.9%	64^th
2010 Apr-Jun	96	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Jul-Sep	44	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Nov-Dec	51	2	3.9%	75^th
2011 Jan-Mar	46	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Apr-Jun	58	1	1.7%	30^th
2011 Jul-Sep	49	1	2.0%	48^th
2011 Oct-Dec	82	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Apr-Jun	109	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Jul-Sep	28	1	3.6%	61^st
2012 Nov-Dec	50	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Jan	1	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Mar	92	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Apr-Jun	76	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jul-Sep	43	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Oct-Dec	80	1	1.3%	49^th
2014 Jan-Mar	93	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Apr-Jun	123	6	4.9%	65^th
2014 Jul-Sep	54	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Nov-Dec	96	0	0.0%	0^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	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Apr-Jun	79	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Jul-Sep	34	0	0.0%	0^th
2016 Nov-Dec	12	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	101	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Apr-Jun	54	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jul-Sep	53	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Oct-Dec	117	4	3.4%	85^th
2018 Jan-Mar	63	1	1.6%	56^th
2018 Apr-Apr	16	0	0.0%	0^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
GPO.gov/FDSys, for sponsored bills

Jon Tester is pronounced:

jon // TEST-er

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In
E e	bed
ER er	her
J j	jam
N n	not
O o	top
S s	sit
T t	top

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Sen. Jon Tester

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