Paul is the junior senator from Kentucky and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 5, 2011. Paul is next up for reelection in 2022.
![Photo of Sen. Rand Paul [R-KY]](/static/legislator-photos/412492-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2018 Report Card for Paul.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Paul 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 Paul has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Apr 11, 2019. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Rand Paul sits on the following committees:
-
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
- Chair, Subcommittee on Children and Families
- Member, Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety
-
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
- Chair, Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management
- Member, Subcommittee on Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
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Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
- Member, Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation
- Member, Subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy
- Member, Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism
- Member, Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development
- Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Paul sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (21%) Crime and Law Enforcement (18%) Government Operations and Politics (14%) Economics and Public Finance (12%) Environmental Protection (11%) Armed Forces and National Security (8%) Immigration (8%) Finance and Financial Sector (7%)
Recent Bills
Some of Paul’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S.Con.Res. 11: A concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government ...
- S.J.Res. 12: AFGHAN Service Act
- S. 643: BE SAFE Act
- S. 623: Default Prevention Act
- S. 581: Fuel Choice and Deregulation Act of 2019
- S. 525: National Right-to-Work Act
- S. 376: Defense of Environment and Property Act of 2019
Voting Record
Key Votes
| Paul’s Vote | Vote Description |
|---|---|
| Nay |
H.J.Res. 31: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019
Feb 14, 2019. Conference Report Agreed to 83/16.
This bill, in its final form, funded the parts of the federal government whose funding was to lapse on February 15, 2019. On December 22, 2018 the 115th Congress was unable to reach a deal to fund some federal agencies through fiscal year 2019 after ... |
| Yea |
S. 756: FIRST Step Act
Dec 18, 2018. Motion Agreed to 87/12.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the FIRST Step Act, the Senate's criminal justice reform bill. The text of this bill was replaced in whole on December 18, 2018 with criminal justice reform provisions. Those provisions were originally introduced in S. 2795 and ... |
| Nay |
H.R. 2: Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018
Dec 11, 2018. Conference Report Agreed to 87/13.
See the Congressional Research Service's 122-page summary of the bill. * * * H.R. 2 amends and extends major programs for income support, food and nutrition, land conservation, trade promotion, rural development, research, forestry, horticulture, and other miscellaneous programs administered by the Department of Agriculture ... |
| Nay |
H.R. 2: Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018
Jun 28, 2018. Bill Passed 86/11.
See the Congressional Research Service's 122-page summary of the bill. * * * H.R. 2 amends and extends major programs for income support, food and nutrition, land conservation, trade promotion, rural development, research, forestry, horticulture, and other miscellaneous programs administered by the Department of Agriculture ... |
| Nay |
H.R. 1892: Further Extension of Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018; Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2018, the SUSTAIN Care Act of 2018; Family First Prevention Services Act.; Honoring Hometown ...
Feb 9, 2018. Motion Agreed to 71/28.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of funding for the federal government through March 23, 2018, to avert a government shutdown that would have occurred on February 9, 2018 had this bill not been enacted. The bill was introduced as the Honoring Hometown Heroes ... |
| Yea |
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 ...
Mar 30, 2017. Joint Resolution Passed 51/50.
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 ... |
| Nay |
H.R. 5325: Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2017
Sep 28, 2016. Bill Passed 72/26.
The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations bill which extended funding at the previous year's levels up to December 9, 2016 (10 weeks). After this, a continuing ... |
| Nay |
H.R. 22: Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act
Dec 3, 2015. Conference Report Agreed to 83/16.
H.R 22, formerly the Hire More Heroes Act, has become the Senate’s vehicle for passage of the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act or DRIVE Act (S. 1647). The DRIVE Act is a major bipartisan transportation bill that would authorize funding ... |
| Yea |
H.R. 5771 (113th): Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014
Dec 16, 2014. Bill Passed 76/16.
|
| Nay |
H.J.Res. 124 (113th): Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015
Sep 18, 2014. Joint Resolution Passed 78/22.
|
| Nay |
H.R. 4302 (113th): Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014
Mar 31, 2014. Bill Passed 64/35.
Section 212 of this bill pushed back the deadline to implement the ICD-10 code set to October 1, 2015. The Cutting Costly Codes Act of 2013, which would prevent ICD-10 from being implemented at all without further Congressional approval, has been introduced in House and ... |
Missed Votes
From Jan 2011 to Apr 2019, Paul missed 91 of 2,321 roll call votes, which is 3.9%. This is much worse than the median of 1.4% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
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
