Daines is the junior senator from Montana and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 6, 2015. Daines is next up for reelection in 2026 and serves until Jan 3, 2027.
He was previously the representative for Montana’s at-large district as a Republican from 2013 to 2014.
![Photo of Sen. Steve Daines [R-MT]](/static/legislator-photos/412549-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Daines 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 Daines has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to May 25, 2022. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Steve Daines sits on the following committees:
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Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
- National Parks subcommittee Ranking Member
Public Lands, Forests, and Mining subcommittees -
Senate Committee on Finance
- Health Care subcommittee Ranking Member
- Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
- Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
Enacted Legislation
Daines was the primary sponsor of 18 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 2756: A bill to posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal, in commemoration of the service members who perished as a result of the attack in Afghanistan on August 26, …
- S. 1897: Protecting Indian Tribes from Scams Act
- S. 900 (116th): A bill to designate the community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Bozeman, Montana, as the “Travis W. Atkins Department of Veterans Affairs Clinic”.
- S. 490 (116th): B-47 Ridge Designation Act
- S. 3019 (116th): Montana Water Rights Protection Act
- S. 1228 (116th): PIRATE Act
- S. 1882 (116th): A bill to make available the continued use of Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program project use power by the Kinsey Irrigation Company and the Sidney Water Users Irrigation …
Does 18 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
Daines sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Taxation (20%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (19%) Government Operations and Politics (15%) Health (15%) Armed Forces and National Security (9%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (8%) Native Americans (8%) International Affairs (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Daines recently introduced the following legislation:
- S.Res. 654: A resolution designating June 2022 as “Great Outdoors Month”.
- S.Res. 648: A resolution designating May 2022 as “National Brain Tumor Awareness Month”.
- S. 4283: A bill to authorize the confiscation of assets of the Russian Federation and …
- S.Res. 620: A resolution designating May 5, 2022, as the “National Day of Awareness for …
- S. 4092: A bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to exempt …
- S. 4050: Medicare Advantage Quality Payment Relief Act of 2022
- S. 3961: Access to Small Business Investor Capital Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2015 to May 2022, Daines missed 57 of 2,560 roll call votes, which is 2.2%. This is on par with the median of 2.2% 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