Sen. Rand Paul

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Paul 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 Paul has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to May 2, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Rand Paul sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ranking Member
  Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight, Government Operations and Border Management, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  Africa and Global Health Policy, Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
  Children and Families, Primary Health and Retirement Security subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Enacted Legislation

Paul was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:

• S. 5002 (117th): FDA Modernization Act 2.0

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Does 1 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

Paul sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (28%) Health (17%) Government Operations and Politics (16%) Taxation (11%) Economics and Public Finance (10%) Immigration (6%) Environmental Protection (6%) Crime and Law Enforcement (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Paul recently introduced the following legislation:

• S.J.Res. 66: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed foreign military sale …
• S. 3900: Justice for Breonna Taylor Act
• S.J.Res. 60: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed foreign military sale …
• S. 3664: A bill to require executive branch employees to report certain royalties, and for …
• S.J.Res. 55: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed foreign military sale …
• S.J.Res. 56: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed foreign military sales …
• S.J.Res. 54: A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed foreign military sale …

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2011 to May 2024, Paul missed 239 of 4,412 roll call votes, which is 5.4%. This is much worse than the median of 2.8% 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, major life events, and running for higher office.

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