Sen. Richard Durbin
Senate Minority Whip

Senator from Illinois

Democrat

Senior Senator

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	State / District
1997-2020	Senator	Illinois
1983-1996	Representative	Illinois's 20^th District

Track Him

2014 Report Card

Read our 2014 Report Card for Durbin »

Sponsorship Analysis

Our unique analysis of the bills Durbin has sponsored and cosponsored provides insight into his position in the Senate.

Each dot in the chart below is a member of the Senate. The dots are positioned horizontally according to our progressive—conservative ideology score and vertically according to our leadership score (leaders toward the top). Durbin is shown as a purple triangle. (analysis methodology)

Committee Membership

Richard Durbin sits on the following committees:

Joint Committee on the Library
Senate Committee on Appropriations
- Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Department of Defense
- Member, Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
- Member, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
- Member, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
- Member, Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
- Member, Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
- Ranking Member, Subcommittee on the Constitution
- Member, Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest
- Member, Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts
Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

Bills Sponsored

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

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1997 to Mar 2015, Durbin missed 53 of 5,798 roll call votes, which is 0.9%. This is better than the median of 1.6% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1997 Jan-Mar	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Apr-Jun	125	1	0.8%	48^th
1997 Jul-Sep	103	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Oct-Nov	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Jan-Mar	52	2	3.8%	48^th
1998 Apr-Jun	131	2	1.5%	81^st
1998 Jul-Sep	109	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Oct-Oct	22	1	4.5%	81^st
1999 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Apr-Jun	111	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Jul-Sep	112	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Oct-Nov	70	0	0.0%	0^th
2000 Feb-Mar	51	0	0.0%	0^th
2000 Apr-Jun	120	0	0.0%	0^th
2000 Jul-Sep	89	1	1.1%	41^st
2000 Oct-Dec	38	5	13.2%	77^th
2001 Jan-Mar	63	1	1.6%	73^rd
2001 Apr-Jun	157	2	1.3%	65^th
2001 Jul-Sep	68	1	1.5%	42^nd
2001 Oct-Dec	92	1	1.1%	50^th
2002 Jan-Mar	59	0	0.0%	0^th
2002 Apr-Jun	107	1	0.9%	50^th
2002 Jul-Sep	61	1	1.6%	42^nd
2002 Oct-Nov	26	0	0.0%	0^th
2003 Jan-Mar	112	4	3.6%	90^th
2003 Apr-Jun	150	1	0.7%	30^th
2003 Jul-Sep	108	2	1.9%	60^th
2003 Oct-Nov	89	0	0.0%	0^th
2004 Jan-Mar	64	1	1.6%	60^th
2004 Apr-Jun	88	0	0.0%	0^th
2004 Jul-Sep	42	1	2.4%	57^th
2004 Oct-Dec	22	1	4.5%	70^th
2005 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Apr-Jun	89	5	5.6%	88^th
2005 Jul-Sep	76	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Oct-Dec	120	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Jan-Mar	83	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Apr-Jun	107	2	1.9%	49^th
2006 Jul-Sep	73	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Nov-Dec	16	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Jan-Mar	126	1	0.8%	34^th
2007 Apr-Jun	112	2	1.8%	64^th
2007 Jul-Sep	119	2	1.7%	56^th
2007 Oct-Dec	85	0	0.0%	0^th
2008 Jan-Mar	85	0	0.0%	0^th
2008 Apr-Jun	77	0	0.0%	0^th
2008 Jul-Sep	47	0	0.0%	0^th
2008 Oct-Dec	6	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Jan-Mar	118	1	0.8%	58^th
2009 Apr-Jun	96	3	3.1%	75^th
2009 Jul-Sep	89	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Oct-Dec	94	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Jan-Mar	108	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Apr-Jun	96	1	1.0%	41^st
2010 Jul-Sep	44	0	0.0%	0^th
2010 Nov-Dec	51	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Jan-Mar	46	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Apr-Jun	58	2	3.4%	62^nd
2011 Jul-Sep	49	0	0.0%	0^th
2011 Oct-Dec	82	3	3.7%	69^th
2012 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Apr-Jun	109	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Jul-Sep	28	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Nov-Dec	50	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Jan	1	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Mar	92	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Apr-Jun	76	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jul-Sep	43	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Oct-Dec	80	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Jan-Mar	93	2	2.2%	72^nd
2014 Apr-Jun	123	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Jul-Sep	54	0	0.0%	0^th
2014 Nov-Dec	96	0	0.0%	0^th
2015 Jan-Mar	65	0	0.0%	0^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
Congressional Biographical Directory for elected positions
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
THOMAS, for sponsored bills