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Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s 2022 Report Card

Senior Senator from Tennessee
Republican
Serving Jan 3, 2019 – Jan 3, 2025

These statistics cover Blackburn’s record during the 117th Congress (Jan 3, 2021-Jan 3, 2023) and compare her to other senators also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Feb 12, 2023.

A higher or lower number below doesn’t necessarily make this legislator any better or worse, or more or less effective, than other Members of Congress. We present these statistics for you to understand the quantitative aspects of Blackburn’s legislative career and make your own judgements based on what activities you think are important.

Keep in mind that there are many important aspects of being a legislator besides what can be measured, such as constituent services and performing oversight of the executive branch, which aren’t reflected here.

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Ranked 4th most politically right compared to All Senators

Our unique ideology analysis assigns a score to Members of Congress according to their legislative behavior by how similar the pattern of bills and resolutions they cosponsor are to other Members of Congress.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in the 117th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Blackburn’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (67th percentile); Senate Republicans (92nd percentile); All Senators (96th percentile).

 

Cosponsored the 5th most bills compared to Senate Republicans

Blackburn cosponsored 500 bills and resolutions introduced by other Members of Congress. Cosponsorship shows a willingness to work with others to advance policy goals. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (67th percentile); Senate Republicans (90th percentile); All Senators (76th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 11th least often compared to Senate Republicans (tied with 10 others)

2 of Blackburn’s bills and resolutions in the 117th Congress had a cosponsor who was a chair or ranking member of a committee that the bill was referred to. Getting support from committee leaders on relevant committees is a crucial step in moving legislation forward.

Those bills were: S. 3268: Improving Memphis’ Supply Chain Act; S. 3617: Restoring Confidence to the World …

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (33rd percentile); Senate Republicans (20th percentile); All Senators (13th percentile).

 

Was 21st most absent in votes compared to All Senators (tied with 1 other)

Blackburn missed 5.8% of votes (55 of 949 votes) in the 117th Congress. View Blackburn’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (78th percentile); All Senators (78th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 19th least often compared to All Senators (tied with 7 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Blackburn introduced 6 bills in the 117th Congress that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: S. 365: END Child Exploitation Act; S. 2589: Securing America’s Medicine Cabinet Act …; S. 2731: A bill to designate the …; S. 4017: A bill to designate the …; S.Res. 130: A resolution remembering the 5th …; S.Res. 442: A resolution establishing the SFC …

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (22nd percentile); Senate Republicans (30th percentile); All Senators (18th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Blackburn introduced 3 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in the 117th Congress. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. View Enacted Bills »

Those bills were: S. 2589: Securing America’s Medicine Cabinet Act …; S. 2731: A bill to designate the …; S. 4017: A bill to designate the …

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (33rd percentile); Senate Republicans (50th percentile); All Senators (31st percentile).

The legislator must be the primary sponsor of the bill or joint resolution that was enacted or the primary sponsor of a bill or joint resolution for which at least about one third of its text was incorporated into another bill or joint resolution that was enacted as law, as determined by an automated analysis. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively. We also exclude bills where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill.
 

Bills Introduced

Blackburn introduced 67 bills and resolutions in the 117th Congress. View Bills »

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (56th percentile); Senate Republicans (72nd percentile); All Senators (62nd percentile).

 

Working with the House

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 18 of Blackburn’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the House. Working with a sponsor in the other chamber makes a bill more likely to be passed by both the House and Senate.

Those bills were: S. 88: Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition …; S. 113: Balancing the Rights Of Web …; S. 298: Pharmacy Benefit Manager Accountability Study …; S. 365: END Child Exploitation Act; S. 710: Sister City Transparency Act; S. 822: Transparency for Confucius Institutes Act; S. 924: Rural America Health Corps Act; S. 1134: Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds Congressional …; S. 1325: Woman’s Right To Know Act; S. 1580: Make the Migrant Protection Protocols …; S. 2609: Facilitating Innovative Nuclear Diagnostics Act …; S. 2731: A bill to designate the …; S. 2735: September 11 Day of Remembrance …; S. 2739: A bill to amend title …; S. 3079: Keeping Our COVID–19 Heroes Employed …; S. 4063: No Free TRIPS Act; S.Res. 735: A resolution acknowledging and commemorating …; S.Con.Res. 30: A concurrent resolution expressing the …

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (56th percentile); Senate Republicans (62nd percentile); All Senators (46th percentile).

Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service.
 

Writing Bipartisan Bills

In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 17 of Blackburn’s 67 bills and resolutions had a cosponsor from a different political party than the party Blackburn caucused with in the 117th Congress.

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (44th percentile); Senate Republicans (50th percentile); All Senators (31st percentile).

Cosponsors who caucused with neither the Democratic nor Republican party do not count toward this statistic.
 

Committee Positions

Blackburn held a leadership position on 0 committees and 1 subcommittee, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. View Blackburn’s Profile »

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (0th percentile); Senate Republicans (4th percentile); All Senators (3rd percentile).

 

Joining Bipartisan Bills

Of the 500 bills that Blackburn cosponsored, 29% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (38th percentile); Senate Republicans (34th percentile); All Senators (56th percentile).

Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic.
 

Cosponsors

Blackburn’s bills and resolutions had 346 cosponsors in the 117th Congress. Securing cosponsors is an important part of getting support for a bill, although having more cosponsors does not always mean a bill will get a vote. View Bills »

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (67th percentile); Senate Republicans (64th percentile); All Senators (53rd percentile).

 

Leadership Score

Our unique leadership analysis looks at who is cosponsoring whose bills. A higher score shows a greater ability to get cosponsors on bills.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in the 117th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Blackburn’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Senate Sophomores (56th percentile); Senate Republicans (44th percentile); All Senators (36th percentile).

Additional Notes

Leadership/Ideology: The leadership and ideology scores are not displayed for Members of Congress who introduced fewer than 10 bills, or, for ideology, for Members of Congress that have a low leadership score, as there is usually not enough data in these cases to compute reliable leadership and ideology statistics.

Missing Bills: We exclude bills from some statistics where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill because the bill’s text was replaced in whole with unrelated provisions (i.e. it became a vehicle for passage of unrelated provisions).

Ranking Members (RkMembs): The chair of a committee is always selected from the political party that holds the most seats in the chamber, called the “majority party”. The “ranking member” (sometimes “RkMembs”) is the title given to the senior-most member of the committee not in the majority party.

Freshmen/Sophomores: Freshmen and sophomores are Members of Congress whose first term (in the same chamber at the end of the 117th Congress) was the 117th Congress (freshmen) or 116th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.