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Sen. Tim Scott

Senator for South Carolina

pronounced tim // skot

Scott is the junior senator from South Carolina and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Scott is next up for reelection in 2028 and serves until Jan 3, 2029. He is 58 years old.

He was previously the representative for South Carolina’s 1st congressional district as a Republican from 2011 to 2012.

Photo of Sen. Tim Scott [R-SC]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Scott 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 Scott has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Aug 1, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Tim Scott sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Scott was the primary sponsor of 14 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 14 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

Scott sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (25%) Finance and Financial Sector (21%) Education (21%) International Affairs (8%) Taxation (8%) Labor and Employment (7%) Commerce (7%) Immigration (4%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Scott recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Scott voted No

Scott voted Aye

Scott voted No

Passed 269/161 on Aug 1, 2011.

The Budget Control Act of 2011 (Pub.L. 112–25, S. 365, 125 Stat. 240, enacted August 2, 2011) is a federal statute enacted by the 112th …

Scott voted Aye

Passed 304/117 on Jun 23, 2011.

The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack …

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Aug 2024, Scott missed 204 of 3,997 roll call votes, which is 5.1%. This is worse 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: