Christopher A. Coons

Chris has spent his career in the Senate focused on working across the aisle to get things done for the people of Delaware. In recent years, the Bipartisan Policy Center recognized Chris for his commitment to bipartisanship and awarded him its Legislative Action Award and the independent congressional tracking website GovTrack ranked Chris in the top three most productive Senators of both parties.

Putting pragmatism ahead of politics, Chris has partnered with Republicans and Democrats alike to address key issues facing Delaware and the country. Chris has worked relentlessly with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to provide resources for those struggling with drug addiction and to curb the impact of the opioid crisis. As a result of Chris and his colleagues’ efforts, the Senate passed a comprehensive bill in 2018 that improves prevention, treatment, and recovery to combat the epidemic. Earlier that same year, legislation based on Chris’s American Dream Accounts Act, which expands access to technical training and higher education to students in Delaware and across the country, was signed into law. In 2016, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act, a bill Chris introduced with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah to better protect American invention and innovation.

Chris serves on the Senate Appropriations, Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Ethics committees. He is the chair of the Ethics Committee and the senior Democrat on two subcommittees: The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and Law and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS).