Sen. Robert “Rob” Portman

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2019 Report Card for Portman.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Portman 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 Portman has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Feb 24, 2020. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Robert “Rob” Portman sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Finance
  • Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy subcommittee Chair

  International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness, Taxation and IRS Oversight subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  • Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations subcommittee Chair

  Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management subcommittees
• Joint Economic Committee
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  Africa and Global Health Policy, Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development, Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues subcommittees

Enacted Legislation

Portman was the primary sponsor of 33 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 1539: Protecting Faith-Based and Nonprofit Organizations From Terrorism Act of 2019
• S. 1023 (115th): Tropical Forest Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2018
• S. 3635: Second Chance Reauthorization Act of 2018
• S. 3050: 21st Century IDEA
• S. 3057: STOP Act of 2018
• S. 226: A bill to exclude power supply circuits, drivers, and devices to be connected to, and power, light-emitting diodes or organic light-emitting diodes providing illumination or ceiling fans using ...
• S. 652: Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Act of 2017

View All »

Does 33 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

Portman sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (21%) Health (21%) Taxation (17%) Crime and Law Enforcement (12%) Energy (7%) International Affairs (7%) Education (7%) Armed Forces and National Security (7%)

Recent Bills

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

• S. 3335: A bill to require the Secretary of the Army to convey certain Federal ...
• S. 3220: Ensuring Access to Direct Support Professionals Act
• S. 3208: Regulatory Accountability Act
• S. 3193: Federal Initiative to Guarantee Health by Targeting Fentanyl Act
• S. 3010: Supporting and Empowering the Nation to Improve Outcomes that Reaffirm Careers, Activities, and ...
• S. 2941: Recycling Enhancements to Collection and Yield through Consumer Learning and Education Act of ...
• S. 2940: National Aviation Heritage Area Reauthorization Act of 2019

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2011 to Feb 2020, Portman missed 33 of 2,733 roll call votes, which is 1.2%. This is on par with the median of 1.4% 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
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills