Sen. Ted Cruz

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2018 Report Card for Cruz.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Cruz 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 Cruz has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Oct 17, 2019. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Committee Membership

Ted Cruz sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Chair, Subcommittee on Aviation and Space
  • Member, Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet
  • Member, Subcommittee on Science, Oceans, Fisheries, and Weather
  • Member, Subcommittee on Security
• Senate Committee on the Judiciary
  • Chair, Subcommittee on the Constitution
  • Member, Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration
  • Member, Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism
• Joint Economic Committee
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Member, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy
  • Member, Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism
  • Member, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues
• Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

Enacted Legislation

Cruz was the primary sponsor of 8 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 3257: STOP Using Human Shields Act
• S. 2220: National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2017
• S. 1892: A bill to provide tax relief related to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.
• S. 442: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017
• S.J.Res. 23: A joint resolution disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to drug testing of unemployment compensation applicants.
• S. 1297 (114th): U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act
• S. 2195 (113th): A bill to deny admission to the United States to any representative to the United Nations who has been found to have been engaged in espionage activities ...

View All »

Does 8 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

Cruz sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (33%) Taxation (13%) Immigration (12%) Health (10%) Government Operations and Politics (10%) Science, Technology, Communications (9%) Finance and Financial Sector (6%) Education (6%)

Recent Bills

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

• S. 2386: Targeting Invasive Autocratic Networks, And Necessary Mandatory Export Notifications Act of 2019
• S. 2374: Saving America’s Vulnerable and Endangered Species Act
• S. 2161: Reciprocity Ensures Streamlined Use of Lifesaving Treatments Act of 2019
• S. 1886: Countering Hezbollah in Lebanon’s Military Act of 2019
• S. 1824: Hong Kong Policy Reevaluation Act of 2019
• S. 1771: A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to establish the Assistant ...
• S. 1701: Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act of 2019

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Oct 2019, Cruz missed 252 of 2,084 roll call votes, which is 12.1%. This is much worse than the median of 1.5% 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