Sen. Thomas Carper

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Carper.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Carper 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 3, 2019 to Nov 21, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Thomas Carper sits on the following committees:

• Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chair
  Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight, Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Finance
  • International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness subcommittee Chair

  Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure, Health Care subcommittees
• Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  Government Operations and Border Management, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations subcommittees

Enacted Legislation

Carper was the primary sponsor of 39 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

• S. 2958: Strengthening Coastal Communities Act of 2023
• S. 1116 (117th): Federal Firefighters Fairness Act of 2022
• S. 3650 (117th): PLUM Act of 2022
• S. 3122 (117th): Further Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2021
• S. 1931 (117th): Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021
• S. 1953 (117th): Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021
• S. 375 (116th): Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019

View All »

Does 39 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

Carper sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (25%) Environmental Protection (17%) Water Resources Development (13%) Transportation and Public Works (12%) Government Operations and Politics (12%) Taxation (10%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Education (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Carper recently introduced the following legislation:

• S.Con.Res. 43: A concurrent resolution expressing support for the designation of September 29, 2024, as …
• S.Res. 818: A resolution expressing support for and celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Servicemen’s …
• S.Res. 745: A resolution expressing support for and celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Servicemen’s …
• S.Res. 701: A resolution designating the week of May 19 through May 25, 2024, as …
• S. 4367: Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024
• S. 4350: Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act
• S. 3891: Economic Development Reauthorization Act of 2024

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Missed Votes

From Jan 2001 to Nov 2024, Carper missed 65 of 7,862 roll call votes, which is 0.8%. This is better than the median of 3.0% 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