Portman is the junior senator from Ohio and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 5, 2011. Portman is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.
He was previously the representative for Ohio’s 2nd congressional district as a Republican from 1993 to 2005.
![Photo of Sen. Robert “Rob” Portman [R-OH]](/static/legislator-photos/400325-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 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 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 3, 2017 to Jul 27, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Robert “Rob” Portman sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Portman was the primary sponsor of 44 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 1231: Construction Consensus Procurement Improvement Technical Corrections Act
- S. 2472 (116th): Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility Act
- S. 4200 (116th): Information Technology Modernization Centers of Excellence Program Act
- S. 4128 (116th): Peace Corps Commemorative Work Extension Act
- S. 3890 (116th): National AI Research Resource Task Force Act of 2020
- S. 3220 (116th): Ensuring Access to Direct Support Professionals Act
- S. 1434 (116th): Construction Consensus Procurement Improvement Act of 2019
Does 44 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
Portman sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (23%) Health (22%) Taxation (13%) Crime and Law Enforcement (11%) International Affairs (10%) Armed Forces and National Security (7%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Portman’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 2525: A bill to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require research ...
- S. 2460: A bill to establish a panel of constitutional experts to recommend to Congress ...
- S. 2382: A bill to authorize the National Cyber Director to accept details from other ...
- S. 2324: Federal Permitting Reform and Jobs Act
- S. 2278: Regulatory Accountability Act
- S. 2279: Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act
- S. 2129: Otto Warmbier Countering North Korean Censorship and Surveillance Act of 2021
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2011 to Jul 2021, Portman missed 42 of 3,248 roll call votes, which is 1.3%. This is on par with 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
