Sen. Timothy “Tim” Kaine

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2024 Report Card for Kaine.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Kaine 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 legislators have sponsored and cosponsored from Jan. 6, 2021 to April 2, 2025. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Sen. Timothy “Tim” Kaine [D-VA, 2013-2030] sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues subcommittee Chair

  Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy, Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Armed Services
  • Seapower subcommittee Ranking Member

  Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Readiness and Management Support subcommittees
• Senate Committee on the Budget
• Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
  Education and the American Family, Employment and Workplace Safety subcommittees

Enacted Legislation

Kaine was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 4737 (118th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 220 North Hatcher Avenue in Purcellville, Virginia, as the “Secretary of State Madeleine …
• S. 3913 (117th): Improving DATA in Public Health Act
• S. 610 (117th): Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act
• S. 3183 (117th): Enhancing Military Base Resilience and Conserving Ecosystems through Stormwater Management Act
• S. 470 (117th): Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area Act
• S. 2913 (116th): Protecting Critical Services for Mothers and Babies Act
• S. 725 (116th): A bill to change the address of the postal facility designated in honor of Captain Humayun Khan.

View All »

Does 13 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

Kaine sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (27%) International Affairs (20%) Education (13%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) Labor and Employment (10%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Taxation (7%) Crime and Law Enforcement (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Kaine recently introduced the following legislation:

• S. 1027: Military Spouse Hiring Act
• S. 975: Expanding Medical Education Act
• S. 986: Safe Schools Improvement Act
• S.J.Res. 37: A joint resolution terminating the national emergency declared to impose duties on articles …
• S. 820: Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Authorization Act
• S. 606: Contaminated Wells Relocation Act
• S. 603: A bill to designate the General George C. Marshall House in the Commonwealth …

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Apr 2025, Kaine missed 84 of 4,275 roll call votes, which is 2.0%. This is on par with 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 absences, 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