Marsha Blackburn is the senior senator for Tennessee and the first woman to represent the Volunteer State in the United States Senate. She serves on the Deputy Whip Team and is a member of the Finance Committee; the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee; the Veterans’ Affairs Committee; and the Judiciary Committee. She serves as the Ranking Member on the Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security and on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. Before her election to the Senate, Marsha represented Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. She dedicates her public service to promoting opportunities for all Tennesseans, including by breaking barriers for women, and making America a more prosperous place to live.
In 2018, the people of Tennessee elected Marsha Blackburn as the first woman to represent the Volunteer State in the United States Senate. As Tennessee’s senior senator, she serves on the Deputy Whip Team and is a member of the Finance Committee; the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee; the Veterans’ Affairs Committee; and the Judiciary Committee. She serves as the Ranking Member on the Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security and the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law.
Marsha dedicates her public service to promoting opportunities for all Tennesseans, including by breaking barriers for women, and making America a more prosperous place to live. As a longtime ally of the entertainment industry, Marsha began her career in public service in 1995 when she served as executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment, and Music Commission. While serving in the Tennessee State Senate, Marsha led a successful, statewide grassroots campaign to defeat a proposed state income tax, earning her a reputation as an anti-tax champion. Before her election to the U.S. Senate, Marsha represented Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, where she became a leader in the fight for a small, efficient federal government that is accountable to its citizens.
In the United States Senate, Marsha has continued to fight for fiscal responsibility, economic opportunity, and strategic trade policies that advance U.S. competitiveness. To rein in reckless spending, she has introduced legislation requiring 1%, 2%, and 5% across-the-board cuts to non-defense, non-veterans, and non-homeland security spending.
A staunch supporter of the military, Marsha champions policies that support active duty servicemembers and guardsmen, their families, and their missions at home and abroad. In 2022, she successfully led the fight to repeal the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. She is a leading advocate for veterans and has fought tirelessly to expand their health care access through the community care program. Marsha’s commitment to protecting quality health care for all Tennesseans motivated the creation of her “Rural Health Agenda,” an innovative series of bills that would expand access, support providers, and assist local leaders in making care provision a crucial aspect of economic development. In addition, her bipartisan Transparency and Effective Accountability Measures for (TEAM) Veteran Caregivers Act, which improves the VA caregiver program, and Strengthening VA Cybersecurity Act, which protects veterans’ personal information, were both signed into law.
Throughout her time in Congress, Marsha has led the fight to hold Communist China accountable. Her in-depth analyses of the Chinese Communist Party’s threats to American sovereignty have prompted Congress to examine legislation countering Beijing’s malign influence on global supply chains, technology infrastructure, and international organizations. After Beijing took over the once autonomous region of Hong Kong in 2019, Marsha led bipartisan legislation, which was signed into law by President Trump, that prohibits the U.S. export of crowd control equipment to the Hong Kong Police Force. Her bipartisan Open Technology Fund Authorization Act, which supports internet freedom by addressing authoritarian regimes’ efforts to censor the internet, was also signed into law.
At the same time Marsha has stood up to Communist China, she has worked to bolster the U.S.-Taiwan relationship. In August 2022, she visited Taiwan, met with President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, and called to strengthen connections between the U.S. and Taiwan. During this visit, Marsha made her stance clear: Taiwan is a country.
Marsha has championed numerous initiatives on behalf of the creative community including the AM/FM Act and the HITS Act, as well as a tax classification fix for self-employed workers that was implemented as part of the CARES Act. These efforts built on her advocacy on behalf of creators and rights-owners in the House of Representatives, where she established the bipartisan Songwriters Caucus and successfully fought for passage of the Music Modernization Act, which revolutionized music licensing processes, and the BOTS Act, which empowered the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on digital scalpers.
On border policy, Marsha bases her approach on the simple truth that until our borders are secure, every town will be a border town and every state will be a border state. In the Senate, she has led the charge to fully fund the United States Border Patrol, restart construction of a physical barrier, impose harsher criminal penalties for drug smuggling, and fight for law and order on behalf of the thousands of women and girls lost to cross-border human trafficking.
Since taking public office, Marsha has been a leader in the fight to protect women and children. Following reports that social media platforms knowingly exposed minors to harmful content, Marsha first introduced the Kids Online Safety Act in the 117th Congress. In 2024, her bipartisan REPORT Act, which requires Big Tech companies to report sex trafficking crimes against children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, was signed into law.
To protect women from workplace abuse, Marsha introduced the Speak Out Act, which was signed into law in 2022 and prohibits the enforcement of NDAs in instances of sexual harassment and assault. In 2019, her bipartisan Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin Act, honoring the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote and the legacy of the suffrage activists, was signed into law by President Trump.
Marsha’s leadership philosophy is based on her experiences in the private sector as a small businesswoman and author, and as a mother and grandmother.
