Blackburn is the senior senator from Tennessee and is a Republican. She has served since Jan 3, 2019. Blackburn is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025.
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]](/static/legislator-photos/400032-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2019 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 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 3, 2017 to Jan 6, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Enacted Legislation
Blackburn was the primary sponsor of 11 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 2017: Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2019
- S. 1235: Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act
- H.R. 5799 (115th): Medicaid Drug Review, Utilization, Good Governance Improvement Act
- H.R. 375 (115th): To designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 719 Church Street in Nashville, Tennessee, as the “Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and United States ...
- H.J.Res. 86 (115th): Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to “Protecting the Privacy ...
- H.R. 2435 (114th): To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with regard to the Reagan-Udall Foundation.
- H.R. 5729 (113th): Adding Ebola to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act
Does 11 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 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Blackburn sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (39%) Commerce (12%) Science, Technology, Communications (12%) Immigration (9%) Crime and Law Enforcement (9%) International Affairs (9%) Education (5%) Government Operations and Politics (5%)
Recent Bills
Some of Blackburn’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 5005 (116th): Defending Pensions from the Chinese Communist Threat Act
- S. 4899: Sister City Transparency Act
- S. 4885: EIDL Advance Protection Act
- S. 4577: A bill to require online enrollment for the PreCheck Program of the Transportation ...
- S. 4525: A bill to ensure that health care providers do not incur additional Federal ...
- S. 4429: K2 Veterans Toxic Exposure Accountability Act of 2020
- S. 4343: Triple A Study Act
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2019 to Jan 2021, Blackburn missed 12 of 721 roll call votes, which is 1.7%. This is on par with the median of 1.6% 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.
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
