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Rep. Vern Buchanan

Representative for Florida’s 16th District

pronounced vern // byoo-KAN-un

Buchanan is the representative for Florida’s 16th congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Buchanan is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 72 years old.

He was previously the representative for Florida’s 13th congressional district as a Republican from 2007 to 2012.

Photo of Rep. Vern Buchanan [R-FL16]

Earmarks

Buchanan proposed $35 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:

  • $3.5 million to Manatee County for “51st Street West Expansion Project”
  • $3.0 million to The University of South Florida for “USF Center for Entrepreneurship on Sarasota-Manatee Campus”
  • $3.0 million to Hillsborough County, Florida for “Gibsonton Septic-to-Sewer Conversion Project”

These are earmark requests which may or may not survive the legislative process to becoming law. Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Across representatives who requested earmarks, the median total amount requested for this fiscal year was $39 million.

Earmarks are federal expenditures, tax benefits, or tariff benefits requested by a legislator for a specific entity. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. All earmark requests in the House of Representatives are published online for the public to review. We don’t have earmark requests for senators. The fiscal year begins on October 1 of the prior calendar year. Source: Appropriations.house.gov. Background: Earmark Disclosure Rules in the House

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Buchanan is shown as a purple triangle in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives 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 Buchanan has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Mar 26, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Vern Buchanan sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Buchanan was the primary sponsor of 7 bills that were enacted:

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Does 7 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

Buchanan sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Taxation (30%) Health (23%) Armed Forces and National Security (19%) Crime and Law Enforcement (12%) Environmental Protection (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Buchanan recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Buchanan voted Yea

Buchanan voted Yea

Buchanan voted Aye

Passed 231/190 on May 2, 2019.

The Paris Agreement, named after the city where it was negotiated, is the international treaty by which almost every nation on earth has agreed to …

Buchanan voted Yea

Passed 240/190 on Feb 27, 2019.

Buchanan voted Nay

Failed 229/158 on May 23, 2016.

Buchanan voted Nay

Passed 241/184 on May 18, 2016.

Buchanan voted Yea

Passed 338/88 on May 13, 2015.

The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of …

Buchanan voted Aye

Buchanan 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 2007 to Mar 2024, Buchanan missed 434 of 11,656 roll call votes, which is 3.7%. This is worse than the median of 1.9% among the lifetime records of representatives 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: