Sen. Benjamin Cardin

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Cardin.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Cardin 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 Cardin has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Apr 16, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Benjamin Cardin sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chair
  • State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development subcommittee Chair

  Africa and Global Health Policy, East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues subcommittees
• Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe Chair
• Senate Committee on Finance
  • Health Care subcommittee Chair

  International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness, Taxation and IRS Oversight subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
  Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Enacted Legislation

Cardin was the primary sponsor of 45 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 53: Combating Global Corruption Act of 2023
• S. 5229 (117th): A bill to direct the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to remove the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of …
• S. 4900 (117th): SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022
• S. 4558 (117th): Cleaner, Quieter Airplanes Act
• S. 3492 (117th): A bill to address the importance of foreign affairs training in national security, and for other purposes.
• S. 3493 (117th): Drug Shortages Shelf Life Extension Act
• S. 1104 (117th): Haiti Development, Accountability, and Institutional Transparency Initiative Act

View All »

Does 45 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

Cardin sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (23%) Commerce (22%) Health (17%) Taxation (15%) Crime and Law Enforcement (7%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Government Operations and Politics (5%) Environmental Protection (4%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Cardin recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 4114: A bill to authorize a higher Federal share for emergency relief funds for …
• S.Res. 626: A resolution recognizing the importance of the United States-Japan alliance and welcoming the …
• S. 4022: A bill to amend the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act to make improvements …
• S.Res. 605: A resolution recognizing the 75th anniversary of the National Institute of Dental and …
• S. 3987: Stateless Protection Act of 2024
• S. 3964: A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, with respect to the …
• S. 3854: A bill to combat transnational repression abroad, to strengthen tools to combat authoritarianism, …

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to Apr 2024, Cardin missed 47 of 5,748 roll call votes, which is 0.8%. This is better 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
• United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
• Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
• GPO Member Guide for the photo
• GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills