Sen. William Proxmire

Former Senator from Wisconsin

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1959-1988	Senator	Wisconsin
1957-1958	Senator	Wisconsin

Sponsorship Analysis

Proxmire was a rank-and-file Democrat according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship from Proxmire’s time serving in the Senate.

Use this chart to compare Proxmire to other members of the Senate in the 100^th Congress on leadership and ideology.

This chart is based on principal components analysis for ideology and PageRank for leadership. See analysis methodology.

Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Some of Proxmire’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Aug 1957 to Oct 1988, Proxmire missed 12 of 12,062 roll call votes, which is 0.1%. This is better than the median of 5.3% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Oct 1988. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1957 Jul-Aug	3	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Feb-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Apr-Jun	85	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Jul-Aug	76	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 Jan-Apr	57	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 May-Aug	124	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 Sep-Sep	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1960 Jan-Apr	77	5	6.5%	25^th
1960 May-Aug	122	1	0.8%	0^th
1960 Sep-Sep	5	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 Jan-Apr	31	1	3.2%	50^th
1961 May-Aug	137	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 Sep-Sep	36	1	2.8%	67^th
1962 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Apr-Jun	62	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jul-Sep	122	1	0.8%	0^th
1962 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jan-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	71	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jul-Sep	57	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Oct-Dec	86	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jan-Mar	59	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Apr-Jun	136	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	105	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Oct-Oct	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	32	1	3.1%	13^th
1965 Apr-Jun	106	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jul-Sep	106	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Oct-Oct	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1966 Jan-Mar	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1966 Apr-Jun	56	1	1.8%	0^th
1966 Jul-Sep	119	0	0.0%	0^th
1966 Oct-Oct	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Jan-Mar	53	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Apr-Jun	70	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Jul-Sep	78	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Oct-Dec	110	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Jan-Mar	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Apr-Jun	96	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Jul-Sep	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Oct-Oct	27	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Jan-Mar	17	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	24	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Jul-Sep	44	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Oct-Dec	155	0	0.0%	0^th
1970 Jan-Mar	100	0	0.0%	0^th
1970 Apr-Jun	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1970 Jul-Sep	121	0	0.0%	0^th
1970 Oct-Dec	105	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Feb-Mar	25	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Apr-Jun	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Jul-Sep	109	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Oct-Dec	202	0	0.0%	0^th
1972 Jan-Mar	119	0	0.0%	0^th
1972 Apr-Jun	129	0	0.0%	0^th
1972 Jul-Sep	206	0	0.0%	0^th
1972 Oct-Oct	75	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Jan-Mar	67	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Apr-Jun	192	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Jul-Sep	166	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Oct-Dec	168	0	0.0%	0^th
1974 Jan-Mar	93	0	0.0%	0^th
1974 Apr-Jun	178	0	0.0%	0^th
1974 Jul-Sep	138	0	0.0%	0^th
1974 Oct-Dec	133	0	0.0%	0^th
1975 Jan-Mar	117	0	0.0%	0^th
1975 Apr-Jun	140	0	0.0%	0^th
1975 Jul-Sep	167	0	0.0%	0^th
1975 Oct-Dec	180	0	0.0%	0^th
1976 Jan-Mar	103	0	0.0%	0^th
1976 Apr-Jun	263	0	0.0%	0^th
1976 Jul-Sep	313	0	0.0%	0^th
1976 Oct-Oct	13	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	92	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Apr-Jun	178	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jul-Sep	233	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Oct-Dec	132	0	0.0%	0^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	1	1.3%	0^th
1978 Apr-Jun	119	0	0.0%	0^th
1978 Jul-Sep	235	0	0.0%	0^th
1978 Oct-Oct	85	0	0.0%	0^th
1979 Feb-Mar	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	0	0.0%	0^th
1979 Jul-Sep	170	0	0.0%	0^th
1979 Oct-Dec	184	0	0.0%	0^th
1980 Jan-Mar	67	0	0.0%	0^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	0	0.0%	0^th
1980 Jul-Sep	178	0	0.0%	0^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Jan-Mar	57	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	124	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Jul-Sep	122	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Oct-Dec	192	0	0.0%	0^th
1982 Feb-Mar	77	0	0.0%	0^th
1982 Apr-Jun	127	0	0.0%	0^th
1982 Jul-Sep	176	0	0.0%	0^th
1982 Oct-Dec	86	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Feb-Mar	54	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Apr-Jun	121	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Jul-Sep	92	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Oct-Nov	101	0	0.0%	0^th
1984 Jan-Mar	45	0	0.0%	0^th
1984 Apr-Jun	144	0	0.0%	0^th
1984 Jul-Sep	68	0	0.0%	0^th
1984 Oct-Oct	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Apr-Jun	116	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Jul-Sep	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Oct-Dec	183	0	0.0%	0^th
1986 Jan-Mar	51	0	0.0%	0^th
1986 Apr-Jun	103	0	0.0%	0^th
1986 Jul-Sep	149	0	0.0%	0^th
1986 Oct-Oct	56	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jan-Mar	50	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Apr-Jun	123	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jul-Sep	120	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Oct-Dec	127	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Jan-Mar	84	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Apr-Jun	136	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Jul-Sep	127	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Oct-Oct	31	0	0.0%	0^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

Congressional Biographical Directory for elected positions
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
THOMAS, for sponsored bills

Recent Legislative Activity

Elections and Offices

Sen. William Proxmire [D-WI, 1959-1988] leaves office as Senator from Wisconsin

Oct 22, 1988

Elections and Offices

Sen. William Proxmire [D-WI, 1959-1988] takes office as Senator from Wisconsin

Jan 07, 1959

Elections and Offices

Sen. William Proxmire [D-WI, 1959-1988] leaves office as Senator from Wisconsin

Aug 24, 1958

Elections and Offices

Sen. William Proxmire [D-WI, 1959-1988] takes office as Senator from Wisconsin

Jan 03, 1957