Sen. Patrick Leahy

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2018 Report Card for Leahy.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Leahy 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 Leahy has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Jul 17, 2019. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Patrick Leahy sits on the following committees:

• Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Appropriations
  • Ranking Member, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
  • Ex Officio, Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
  • Ex Officio, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Ex Officio, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
  • Ex Officio, Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
  • Ex Officio, Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
  • Ex Officio, Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
  • Member, Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  • Member, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
  • Member, Subcommittee on Department of Defense
  • Member, Subcommittee on Department of Homeland Security
  • Member, Subcommittee on Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
• Joint Committee on the Library
• Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
  • Member, Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry, and Natural Resources
  • Member, Subcommittee on Livestock, Marketing, and Agriculture Security
  • Member, Subcommittee on Nutrition, Agricultural Research, and Specialty Crops
• Senate Committee on the Judiciary
  • Member, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights
  • Member, Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration
  • Member, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property
  • Member, Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts
• Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

Enacted Legislation

Leahy was the primary sponsor of 105 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 1231: A bill to reauthorize the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program.
• S. 125 (114th): Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program Reauthorization Act of 2015
• S.J.Res. 3 (114th): A joint resolution providing for the reappointment of David M. Rubenstein as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
• S.J.Res. 40 (113th): A joint resolution providing for the appointment of Michael Lynton as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
• S. 517 (113th): Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act
• S.J.Res. 32 (113th): A joint resolution providing for the reappointment of John W. McCarter as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
• S.J.Res. 28 (113th): A joint resolution providing for the appointment of John Fahey as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

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Does 105 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

Leahy sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Crime and Law Enforcement (24%) Taxation (16%) Government Operations and Politics (16%) International Affairs (12%) Immigration (10%) Commerce (8%) Health (6%) Agriculture and Food (6%)

Recent Bills

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

• S. 2180: A bill to provide oversight of the border zone in which Federal agents ...
• S. 2026: Farm to School Act of 2019
• S. 1231: A bill to reauthorize the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program.
• S. 1185: No Tax Write-offs for Corporate Wrongdoers Act
• S. 635: Restoring Statutory Rights and Interests of the States Act of 2019
• S. 561: Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019
• S. 340: CREATES Act of 2019

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 1975 to Jul 2019, Leahy missed 601 of 16,571 roll call votes, which is 3.6%. This is much worse than the median of 1.5% 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.

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