Duckworth is the junior senator from Illinois and is a Democrat. She has served since Jan 3, 2017. Duckworth is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023 unless re-elected.
She was previously the representative for Illinois’s 8th congressional district as a Democrat from 2013 to 2016.
Duckworth is a potential running mate for 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. We compared the legislative records of the potential running mates who served in Congress.
![Photo of Sen. Tammy Duckworth [D-IL]](/static/legislator-photos/412533-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2019 Report Card for Duckworth.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Duckworth 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 Duckworth has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Aug 11, 2020. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Tammy Duckworth sits on the following committees:
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Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- Transportation and Safety subcommittee Ranking Member
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Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
- Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife subcommittee Ranking Member
Clean Air and Nuclear Safety subcommittees -
Senate Committee on Armed Services
- Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Enacted Legislation
Duckworth was the primary sponsor of 6 bills that were enacted:
- S. 1739: Department of Energy National Labs Jobs ACCESS Act
- S. 2679: Citizenship for Children of Military Members and Civil Servants Act
- S. 2679 (115th): Veterans Small Business Enhancement Act of 2018
- S. 1050 (115th): Chinese-American World War II Veteran Congressional Gold Medal Act
- S. 496: A bill to repeal the rule issued by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration entitled “Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordination and Planning Area Reform”.
- H.R. 4797 (114th): GET THE LEAD OUT Act of 2016
Does 6 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
Duckworth sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Armed Forces and National Security (21%) Health (15%) Environmental Protection (15%) Transportation and Public Works (14%) Science, Technology, Communications (10%) Crime and Law Enforcement (9%) Education (8%) Immigration (8%)
Recent Bills
Some of Duckworth’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 4369: A bill to protect clean air and public health by expanding fenceline and ...
- S. 4306: A bill to invest in workers and jobs, address important legacy costs in ...
- S. 4050: Public Health Emergency Production Act of 2020
- S. 3991: Coronavirus 2019 Special Enrollment Period Act
- S. 3935: A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to prohibit the burial ...
- S. 3903: ELITE Act of 2020
- S. 3791: National Guard COVID-19 Response Stability Act
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2017 to Aug 2020, Duckworth missed 99 of 1,184 roll call votes, which is 8.4%. This is much worse than the median of 1.7% 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
