Sen. Jon Tester

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 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 from Jan 6, 2015 to Feb 25, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Jon Tester sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Ranking Member
• Senate Committee on Appropriations
  • Department of Homeland Security subcommittee Ranking Member

  Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, Energy and Water Development, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
  Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, Securities, Insurance, and Investment subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  Aviation and Space, Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Enacted Legislation

Tester was the primary sponsor of 18 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 3039: A bill to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a grant program to conduct cemetery research and produce educational materials for the Veterans Legacy Program, and ...
• S. 51: Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians Restoration Act of 2019
• S. 60: Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act
• S. 2248 (115th): Veterans Benefits and Transition Act of 2018
• S. 501: East Rosebud Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
• S. 544: A bill to amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to modify the termination date for the Veterans Choice Program, and for other purposes.
• S. 719 (114th): A bill to rename the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Great Falls, Montana, the Captain John E. Moran and Captain William Wylie Galt Armed Forces Reserve Center.

View All »

Does 18 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

Tester sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (37%) Native Americans (15%) Education (12%) Government Operations and Politics (10%) Health (8%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Taxation (7%)

Recent Bills

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

• S. 3266: Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act of 2020
• S.Res. 491: A resolution designating the week beginning February 2, 2020, as “National Tribal Colleges ...
• S. 3177: Strengthening Oversight for Veterans Act of 2020
• S. 3113: Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Water Rights ...
• S. 3089: BUILD for Veterans Act of 2019
• S. 3039: A bill to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a grant ...
• S. 3050: A bill to amend the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Act of 1978 ...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to Feb 2020, Tester missed 29 of 4,087 roll call votes, which is 0.7%. 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