During the 1960s, Sarbanes was a lawyer who often worked with the Maryland state and Baltimore city governments. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1970 and was reelected in 1972 and 1974. In 1976 he was elected to the senate and reelected in 1982, 1988, 1994 and 2000. In 2002, Sarbanes was co-sponsor of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.