Sen. John Barrasso
Senate Republican Conference Chair and Senator for Wyoming
pronounced jon // buh-RA-soh
Barrasso is the senior senator from Wyoming and is a Republican. He has served since Jun 25, 2007. Barrasso is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 71 years old.
He is also Senate Republican Conference Chair, a party leadership role. Party leaders focus more on setting their party’s legislative priorties than on introducing legislation.
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2022 Report Card for Barrasso.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Barrasso 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 Barrasso has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Mar 23, 2024. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
John Barrasso sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Barrasso was the primary sponsor of 19 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 4978 (117th): State Offices of Rural Health Program Reauthorization Act of 2022
- S. 4555 (117th): Japanese American World War II History Network Act
- S. 3051 (116th): America’s Conservation Enhancement Act
- S. 4694 (116th): Russian Suspension Agreement Extension Act of 2020
- S. 990 (116th): Platte River Recovery Implementation Program Extension Act
- S. 2194 (116th): PREDATORS Act
- S. 383 (116th): USE IT Act
Does 19 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
Barrasso sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Energy (27%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (19%) Health (18%) International Affairs (10%) Environmental Protection (9%) Taxation (7%) Water Resources Development (5%) Transportation and Public Works (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Barrasso recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 3929: A bill to prohibit the Secretary of Agriculture from taking certain proposed actions …
- S. 3829: A bill to address actions for applications to export liquefied natural gas, and …
- S. 3482: 988 Lifeline Location Improvement Act of 2023
- S.Res. 470: A resolution designating November 16th, 2023, as “National Rural Health Day”.
- S. 3322: Ranching Without Red Tape Act of 2023
- S. 3123: Modernizing Access to Our Public Waters Act
- S. 3130: Restoring Accountability in the Indian Health Service Act of 2023
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
As Senate Republican Conference Chair, Barrasso may be focused on his responsibilities other than introducing legislation, such as setting the chamber’s agenda, uniting his party, and brokering deals.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jun 2007 to Mar 2024, Barrasso missed 222 of 5,494 roll call votes, which is 4.0%. This is worse than the median of 2.9% 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.
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