Brown is the senior senator from Ohio and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 4, 2007. Brown is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025.
He was previously the representative for Ohio’s 13th congressional district as a Democrat from 1993 to 2006.
![Photo of Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-OH]](/static/legislator-photos/400050-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 Report Card for Brown.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Brown 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 Brown has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Jun 10, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Sherrod Brown sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Brown was the primary sponsor of 23 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 4870 (116th): A bill to rename the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.
- S. 3049 (116th): Laboratory Access for Beneficiaries Act
- S. 2803 (116th): Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Act of 2019
- S. 2619 (116th): Healthy Start Reauthorization Act of 2019
- S. 1436 (116th): A bill to make technical corrections to the computation of average pay under Public Law 110-279.
- S. 2377 (115th): A bill to designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 200 West 2nd Street in Dayton, Ohio, as the “Walter H. Rice Federal Building ...
- S. 1319 (115th): Community Care Core Competency Act of 2017
Does 23 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
Brown sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (39%) Taxation (19%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) Labor and Employment (9%) Finance and Financial Sector (7%) Education (5%) Social Welfare (5%)
Recent Bills
Some of Brown’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S.Res. 261: A resolution recognizing June 2021 as “LGBTQ Pride Month”.
- S. 1892: A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify employer-provided ...
- S. 1833: A bill to amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to extend ...
- S. 1837: A bill to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of ...
- S. 1817: A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to establish a competitive ...
- S.Res. 219: A resolution designating May 18, 2021, as “CASA/GAL Volunteers’ Day”.
- S. 1567: Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2021
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2007 to Jun 2021, Brown missed 60 of 4,546 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
