Sen. Pat Roberts

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2020 Report Card for Roberts.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Roberts is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2020 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 Roberts sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Dec 21, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Roberts was the primary sponsor of 28 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 4054 (116th): United States Grain Standards Reauthorization Act of 2020
• S. 252 (116th): A bill to authorize the honorary appointment of Robert J. Dole to the grade of colonel in the regular Army.
• S. 483 (116th): Pesticide Registration Improvement Extension Act of 2018
• S. 2278 (115th): State Offices of Rural Health Reauthorization Act of 2018
• S. 3042 (115th): Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018
• S. 2908 (115th): A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for electronic prior authorization under Medicare part D for covered part D drugs, and …
• S. 2910 (115th): TeleCAST Act

View All »

Does 28 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Roberts sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (28%) Taxation (23%) Agriculture and Food (21%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (13%) Crime and Law Enforcement (6%) International Affairs (4%) Government Operations and Politics (4%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Roberts recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 4845 (116th): Agricultural Emissions Data Act of 2020
• S. 4840 (116th): Ensuring Parity in MA for Audio-Only Telehealth Act of 2020
• S. 4054 (116th): United States Grain Standards Reauthorization Act of 2020
• S.Res. 564 (116th): A resolution commemorating May 8, 2020, the 75th anniversary of Victory in …
• S. 3291 (116th): Support Small Business R & D Act of 2020
• S. 3076 (116th): An original bill to release a federal reversionary interest in Chester County, …
• S. 2819 (116th): Lifetime Learning Credit Enhancement Act

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 1997 to Jan 2021, Roberts missed 220 of 7,553 roll call votes, which is 2.9%. This is on par with the median of 1.8% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Jan 2021. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

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
• United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
• Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills