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 2028 and serves until Jan 3, 2029. He is 60 years old.
![Photo of Sen. Rand Paul [R-KY]](/static/legislator-photos/412492-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2022 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 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 3, 2019 to Mar 16, 2023. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Rand Paul sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Paul was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:
Does 1 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
Paul sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (24%) Health (16%) Government Operations and Politics (15%) Economics and Public Finance (13%) Environmental Protection (12%) Taxation (9%) Immigration (6%) Crime and Law Enforcement (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Paul recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 812: A bill to strengthen employee cost savings suggestions programs within the Federal Government.
- S. 780: A bill to require the Comptroller General of the United States to analyze …
- S. 532: National Right-to-Work Act
- S. 420: COVID–19 Vaccination Non-Discrimination Act
- S.Res. 46: A resolution providing for sufficient time for legislation to be read.
- S. 329: Write the Laws Act
- S. 328: Read the Bills Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2011 to Mar 2023, Paul missed 214 of 3,969 roll call votes, which is 5.4%. This is much worse than the median of 2.3% 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, major life events, and running for higher office.
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
