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 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.
![Photo of Sen. Rand Paul [R-KY]](/static/legislator-photos/412492-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 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, 2017 to Jun 16, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Rand Paul sits on the following committees:
- Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Ranking Member
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Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
- Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight subcommittee Ranking Member
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations subcommittees -
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Africa and Global Health Policy, Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development subcommittees
- Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Paul sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (20%) Economics and Public Finance (15%) Government Operations and Politics (14%) Health (12%) Environmental Protection (12%) Crime and Law Enforcement (11%) Taxation (9%) Immigration (7%)
Recent Bills
Some of Paul’s most recently sponsored bills include...
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2011 to Jun 2021, Paul missed 174 of 3,204 roll call votes, which is 5.4%. This is much worse than the median of 1.6% 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.
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
