Scott is the junior senator from South Carolina and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Scott is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.
He was previously the representative for South Carolina’s 1st congressional district as a Republican from 2011 to 2012.
![Photo of Sen. Tim Scott [R-SC]](/static/legislator-photos/412471-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2019 Report Card for Scott.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Scott 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 Scott has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Jan 6, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Enacted Legislation
Scott was the primary sponsor of 9 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 461 (116th): HBCU PARTNERS Act
- S. 4209: Protecting Nonprofits from Catastrophic Cash Flow Strain Act of 2020
- S. 4001: Protecting Nonprofits from Catastrophic Cash Flow Strain Act of 2020
- S. 1099: Restraining Excessive Seizure of Property through the Exploitation of Civil asset forfeiture Tools Act
- S. 2465 (115th): Sickle Cell Disease and Other Heritable Blood Disorders Research, Surveillance, Prevention, and Treatment Act of 2018
- S. 2498 (115th): Protecting Children From Identity Theft Act
- S. 1685 (115th): Credit Score Competition Act of 2017
Does 9 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
Scott sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (23%) Finance and Financial Sector (21%) Taxation (18%) Education (17%) Labor and Employment (8%) Crime and Law Enforcement (6%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (5%) Sports and Recreation (3%)
Recent Bills
Some of Scott’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 13: A bill to establish an advisory committee to make recommendations on improvements to ...
- S. 4709: PREVENT DIABETES Act
- S.Res. 706: A resolution expressing support for the designation of September 2020 as “Sickle Cell ...
- S. 4586: Access to Emergency Credit Facilities Act of 2020
- S. 4410: REACH Act
- S. 4325: Business of Insurance Regulatory Reform Act of 2020
- S. 4319: Supporting America’s Restaurant Workers Act
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2013 to Jan 2021, Scott missed 40 of 2,479 roll call votes, which is 1.6%. 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