Cruz is the junior senator from Texas and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Cruz is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025.
![Photo of Sen. Ted Cruz [R-TX]](/static/legislator-photos/412573-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 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 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 3, 2017 to Mar 4, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Ted Cruz sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Cruz was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 4744 (116th): Republic of Texas Legation Memorial Act
- S. 1635 (116th): A bill to designate the community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Odessa, Texas, as the “Wilson and Young Medal of Honor VA Clinic”.
- S. 3257 (115th): Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act
- S. 2220 (115th): National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2017
- S. 1892 (115th): A bill to provide tax relief related to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.
- S. 442 (115th): National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017
- S.J.Res. 23 (115th): A joint resolution disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to drug testing of unemployment compensation applicants.
Does 10 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
Cruz sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (34%) Taxation (18%) Health (13%) Science, Technology, Communications (11%) Government Operations and Politics (7%) Environmental Protection (6%) Finance and Financial Sector (6%) Education (5%)
Recent Bills
Some of Cruz’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 523: A bill to repeal the Office of Financial Research, and for other purposes.
- S. 524: A bill to abolish the Federal Insurance Office of the Department of the ...
- S.J.Res. 9: A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States ...
- S. 461: A bill to create a point of order against legislation modifying the number ...
- S. 362: A bill to amend the FAST Act to improve the Federal permitting process, ...
- S. 361: A bill to establish a 90-day limit to file a petition for judicial ...
- S. 276: SAVES Act
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2013 to Mar 2021, Cruz missed 276 of 2,551 roll call votes, which is 10.8%. 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.
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