Ford was the representative for Tennessee’s 9th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1997 to 2006.
![Photo of Rep. Harold Ford [D-TN9, 1997-2006]](/static/legislator-photos/400138-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Ford is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2006 positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Ford sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2001 to Dec 8, 2006. See full analysis methodology.
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Ford sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (17%) Economics and Public Finance (16%) Labor and Employment (14%) Social Welfare (13%) Education (11%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) Finance and Financial Sector (10%) Commerce (8%)
Recent Bills
Some of Ford’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 5816 (109th): To require budgeting for ongoing military operations.
- H.R. 4906 (109th): 21st Century Innovation Act of 2006
- H.R. 4866 (109th): Promote Responsibility by Improving Development Education Act of 2006
- H.R. 4743 (109th): To amend part D of title XVIII of the Social Security Act ...
- H.R. 4723 (109th): Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Enrollment Extension Act of 2005
- H.Res. 665 (109th): Honoring the service of the National Guard and requesting consultation by the ...
- H.R. 4590 (109th): Employee Retirement Preservation Act
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1997 to Dec 2006, Ford missed 505 of 5,832 roll call votes, which is 8.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.9% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2006. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.
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
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
