Marsha Blackburn, Representative for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District

Blackburn is the representative for Tennessee’s 7^th congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. She has served since Jan 7, 2003. Blackburn’s current term ends on Jan 3, 2019.

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2017 Report Card for Blackburn.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

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

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

NumbersUSA: 98% The Club for Growth: 96% FreedomWorks: 95% Americans for Prosperity: 92% United States Chamber of Commerce: 87% NIAC Action: D The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: D American Civil Liberties Union: 11% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 3% League of Conservation Voters: 2% Human Rights Campaign: 0%

Committee Membership

Marsha Blackburn sits on the following committees:

House Committee on Energy and Commerce
- Chair, Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
- Member, Subcommittee on Environment
- Member, Subcommittee on Health

Enacted Legislation

Blackburn was the primary sponsor of 9 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Blackburn sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (41%) Science, Technology, Communications (15%) Commerce (10%) Economics and Public Finance (10%) Immigration (8%) Government Operations and Politics (7%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Blackburn’s Vote	Vote Description
Nay	S. 139: Rapid DNA Act of 2017 Jan 11, 2018. Passed 256/164. 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 ...
Nay	H.R. 4667: Making further supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2018, for disaster assistance for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and calendar year 2017 wildfires, ... Dec 21, 2017. Passed 251/169.
Aye	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 ...
Nay	S. 764: A bill to reauthorize and amend the National Sea Grant College Program Act, and for other purposes. Jul 14, 2016. Passed 306/117. This bill was the vehicle for passage of the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, which is the form it was enacted it. Prior to amendments, the bill regarded defunding Planned Parenthood and the National Sea Grant College Program. As enacted, the bill created national ...
Aye	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 ...
Nay	H.R. 83 (113th): Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 Dec 11, 2014. Passed 219/206. This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 [pdf], which was approved by the House on December 11, 2014 and by the Senate on December 13, 2014. The bill was originally introduced on January 3, 2013 by ...
No	H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 Sep 17, 2014. Passed 319/108.
Aye	H.R. 6233 (112th): Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012 Aug 2, 2012. Passed 223/197.
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 ...
Nay	S. 3729 (111th): National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010 Sep 29, 2010. Passed 304/118.

Missed Votes

From Jan 2003 to Nov 2018, Blackburn missed 381 of 11,229 roll call votes, which is 3.4%. This is worse 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
2003 Jan-Mar	94	0	0.0%	0^th
2003 Apr-Jun	239	0	0.0%	0^th
2003 Jul-Sep	193	2	1.0%	34^th
2003 Oct-Dec	151	1	0.7%	21^st
2004 Jan-Mar	104	11	10.6%	83^rd
2004 Apr-Jun	221	1	0.5%	17^th
2004 Jul-Sep	161	9	5.6%	67^th
2004 Oct-Dec	58	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Jan-Mar	90	4	4.4%	64^th
2005 Apr-Jun	272	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Jul-Sep	146	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Oct-Dec	163	3	1.8%	35^th
2006 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Apr-Jun	276	5	1.8%	47^th
2006 Jul-Sep	159	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Nov-Dec	27	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Jan-Mar	213	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Apr-Jun	393	5	1.3%	44^th
2007 Jul-Sep	317	4	1.3%	32^nd
2007 Oct-Dec	263	11	4.2%	66^th
2008 Jan-Mar	149	16	10.7%	87^th
2008 Apr-Jun	321	20	6.2%	80^th
2008 Jul-Sep	205	5	2.4%	48^th
2008 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Jan-Mar	174	6	3.4%	68^th
2009 Apr-Jun	303	7	2.3%	53^rd
2009 Jul-Sep	268	3	1.1%	34^th
2009 Oct-Dec	246	3	1.2%	27^th
2010 Jan-Mar	195	8	4.1%	62^nd
2010 Apr-Jun	219	15	6.8%	81^st
2010 Jul-Sep	151	1	0.7%	21^st
2010 Nov-Dec	99	4	4.0%	56^th
2011 Jan-Mar	212	3	1.4%	57^th
2011 Apr-Jun	281	3	1.1%	44^th
2011 Jul-Sep	247	1	0.4%	22^nd
2011 Oct-Dec	208	4	1.9%	52^nd
2012 Jan-Mar	151	1	0.7%	24^th
2012 Apr-Jun	299	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Jul-Sep	152	4	2.6%	65^th
2012 Nov-Dec	51	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Jan	5	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Mar	89	3	3.4%	67^th
2013 Apr-Jun	215	15	7.0%	86^th
2013 Jul-Sep	200	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Oct-Dec	137	4	2.9%	64^th
2014 Jan-Mar	148	3	2.0%	52^nd
2014 Apr-Jun	219	1	0.5%	24^th
2014 Jul-Sep	147	1	0.7%	28^th
2014 Nov-Dec	49	2	4.1%	76^th
2015 Jan-Mar	144	5	3.5%	70^th
2015 Apr-Jun	244	8	3.3%	77^th
2015 Jul-Sep	139	2	1.4%	53^rd
2015 Oct-Dec	177	1	0.6%	31^st
2016 Jan-Mar	137	18	13.1%	89^th
2016 Apr-Jun	204	2	1.0%	32^nd
2016 Jul-Sep	232	5	2.2%	68^th
2016 Nov-Dec	48	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Jan-Mar	208	8	3.8%	78^th
2017 Apr-Jun	136	3	2.2%	59^th
2017 Jul-Sep	199	0	0.0%	0^th
2017 Oct-Dec	167	13	7.8%	87^th
2018 Jan-Mar	129	13	10.1%	86^th
2018 Apr-Jun	184	35	19.0%	95^th
2018 Jul-Sep	102	78	76.5%	99^th
2018 Nov-Nov	3	1	33.3%	79^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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Marsha Blackburn is pronounced:

MAR-shuh // BLAK-bern

The letters stand for sounds according to the following table:

Letter	Sounds As In
A a	cat
AR ar	bar
B b	bat
ER er	her
H h	hat
K k	king
L l	leg
M m	man
N n	not
S s	sit
UH uh	cup

Capital letters indicate a stressed syllable.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn

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