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Sen. Marsha Blackburn

Senator for Tennessee

pronounced MAHR-shuh // BLAK-bern

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Blackburn is the junior senator from Tennessee and is a Republican. She has served since Jan 3, 2019. Blackburn is next up for reelection in 2024.

She was previously the representative for Tennessee’s 7th congressional district as a Republican from 2003 to 2018.

Photo of Sen. Marsha Blackburn [R-TN]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2018 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 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 Blackburn has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Mar 14, 2019. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Marsha Blackburn sits on the following committees:

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 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Blackburn sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (42%) Science, Technology, Communications (13%) 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...

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Voting Record

Key Votes

Blackburn’s Vote Vote Description
Nay H.R. 6157: Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019
Sep 26, 2018. Passed 361/61.
H.R. 6157 provides $674.6 billion in total discretionary budget authority for the Department of Defense for fiscal year (FY) 2019. The bill provides $606.5 billion for the Department of Defense base budget, which is an increase of $17.1 billion above FY18 levels, and $68.1 billion ...
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.
Nay H.R. 2658: Venezuela Humanitarian Assistance and Defense of Democratic Governance Act of 2017
Dec 7, 2017. Passed 388/29.
Not Voting H.R. 1039: Probation Officer Protection Act of 2017
May 19, 2017. Passed 229/177.
H.R. 1039 amends the federal criminal code to authorize a probation officer to arrest a person, without warrant, if there is probable cause to believe that person forcibly assaulted or obstructed a probation officer while performing their official duties. The bill also would direct the ...
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 ...
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. 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 2019 to Mar 2019, Blackburn missed 0 of 50 roll call votes, which is 0.0%. 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...

Primary Sources

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

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