Birch Bayh, former Senator for Indiana

Bayh was a senator from Indiana and was a Democrat. He served from 1963 to 1980.

Photo of Sen. Birch Bayh [D-IN, 1963-1980]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Bayh is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 1980 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 Bayh sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 15, 1975 to Dec 16, 1980. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Bayh was the primary sponsor of 21 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

View All »

Does 21 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Bayh sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (34%) Crime and Law Enforcement (12%) Economics and Public Finance (11%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (11%) Commerce (9%) Social Welfare (9%) Armed Forces and National Security (8%) Labor and Employment (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Bayh recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1963 to Dec 1980, Bayh missed 1,899 of 7,907 roll call votes, which is 24.0%. This is much worse than the median of 9.2% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 1980. 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...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1963 Jan-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	73	3	4.1%	32^nd
1963 Jul-Sep	61	30	49.2%	96^th
1963 Oct-Dec	87	6	6.9%	32^nd
1964 Jan-Mar	60	5	8.3%	56^th
1964 Apr-Jun	138	12	8.7%	84^th
1964 Jul-Sep	106	16	15.1%	72^nd
1964 Oct-Oct	1	1	100.0%	75^th
1965 Jan-Mar	32	7	21.9%	62^nd
1965 Apr-Jun	106	15	14.2%	50^th
1965 Jul-Sep	106	7	6.6%	46^th
1965 Oct-Oct	15	12	80.0%	92^nd
1966 Jan-Mar	28	5	17.9%	48^th
1966 Apr-Jun	56	9	16.1%	48^th
1966 Jul-Sep	119	22	18.5%	84^th
1966 Oct-Oct	35	11	31.4%	72^nd
1967 Jan-Mar	53	28	52.8%	97^th
1967 Apr-Jun	70	11	15.7%	69^th
1967 Jul-Sep	81	17	21.0%	76^th
1967 Oct-Dec	111	23	20.7%	62^nd
1968 Jan-Mar	69	14	20.3%	79^th
1968 Apr-Jun	96	22	22.9%	55^th
1968 Jul-Sep	89	38	42.7%	69^th
1968 Oct-Oct	27	26	96.3%	83^rd
1969 Jan-Mar	17	1	5.9%	36^th
1969 Apr-Jun	26	6	23.1%	79^th
1969 Jul-Sep	44	11	25.0%	92^nd
1969 Oct-Dec	158	38	24.1%	79^th
1970 Jan-Mar	100	29	29.0%	72^nd
1970 Apr-Jun	92	35	38.0%	92^nd
1970 Jul-Sep	123	21	17.1%	41^st
1970 Oct-Dec	106	49	46.2%	82^nd
1971 Feb-Mar	25	12	48.0%	91^st
1971 Apr-Jun	89	31	34.8%	87^th
1971 Jul-Sep	109	68	62.4%	98^th
1971 Oct-Dec	202	61	30.2%	89^th
1972 Jan-Mar	119	45	37.8%	89^th
1972 Apr-Jun	130	31	23.8%	76^th
1972 Jul-Sep	206	9	4.4%	22^nd
1972 Oct-Oct	75	8	10.7%	44^th
1973 Jan-Mar	67	29	43.3%	92^nd
1973 Apr-Jun	192	26	13.5%	71^st
1973 Jul-Sep	167	13	7.8%	56^th
1973 Oct-Dec	168	16	9.5%	48^th
1974 Jan-Mar	94	24	25.5%	91^st
1974 Apr-Jun	179	45	25.1%	83^rd
1974 Jul-Sep	138	61	44.2%	93^rd
1974 Oct-Dec	133	39	29.3%	80^th
1975 Jan-Mar	118	17	14.4%	79^th
1975 Apr-Jun	141	45	31.9%	94^th
1975 Jul-Sep	170	68	40.0%	97^th
1975 Oct-Dec	182	132	72.5%	98^th
1976 Jan-Mar	109	57	52.3%	97^th
1976 Apr-Jun	263	113	43.0%	94^th
1976 Jul-Sep	315	73	23.2%	83^rd
1976 Oct-Oct	13	1	7.7%	29^th
1977 Jan-Mar	92	8	8.7%	52^nd
1977 Apr-Jun	178	15	8.4%	46^th
1977 Jul-Sep	233	2	0.9%	9^th
1977 Oct-Dec	133	11	8.3%	48^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	8	10.3%	54^th
1978 Apr-Jun	119	22	18.5%	91^st
1978 Jul-Sep	237	16	6.8%	36^th
1978 Oct-Oct	86	1	1.2%	12^th
1979 Feb-Mar	32	2	6.2%	50^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	52	43.0%	98^th
1979 Jul-Sep	171	32	18.7%	89^th
1979 Oct-Dec	184	49	26.6%	93^rd
1980 Jan-Mar	67	3	4.5%	39^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	32	14.8%	69^th
1980 Jul-Sep	179	53	29.6%	88^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	39	46.4%	90^th

Primary Sources

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

unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Sen. Birch Bayh

Links

Follow GovTrack on social media for more updates:

On GovTrack Insider:

I have an opinion I want to share.

I need help, have a question, or want to schedule a tour.