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Sen. Jon Tester

Senator for Montana

pronounced jon // TEST-er

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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 2024.

Photo of Sen. Jon Tester [D-MT]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2018 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 May 23, 2019. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Jon Tester sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Tester was the primary sponsor of 16 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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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 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Tester sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (36%) Native Americans (16%) Government Operations and Politics (13%) Education (11%) Health (8%) Taxation (7%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%)

Recent Bills

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

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Voting Record

Key Votes

Tester voted Yea

Conference Report Agreed to 83/16 on Feb 14, 2019.
This bill, in its final form, funded the parts of the federal government whose funding was to lapse on February 15, 2019. On December 22, ...

Tester voted Yea

Tester voted Nay

Motion Agreed to 65/34 on Jan 18, 2018.
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 ...

Tester voted Yea

Bill Passed 72/26 on Sep 28, 2016.
The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations ...

Tester voted Nay

Bill Passed 74/21 on Oct 27, 2015.
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. ...

Tester voted Yea

Joint Resolution Passed 78/22 on Sep 18, 2014.

Tester voted Nay

Tester voted Nay

Bill Passed 86/12 on Feb 15, 2011.

Tester voted Yea

Motion Agreed to 81/19 on Dec 15, 2010.
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 ...

Tester voted Nay

Bill Passed 74/25 on Oct 1, 2008.
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 ...

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to May 2019, Tester missed 29 of 3,726 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.

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Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: