Byrd was a senator from Virginia and was most recently an Independent (1971-1982) and previously a Democrat (1965-1970). He served from 1965 to 1982.
![Photo of Sen. Harry Byrd Jr. [I-VA, 1965-1982]](/static/legislator-photos/402149-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Byrd is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 1982 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 Byrd sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1977 to Dec 23, 1982. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Byrd was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- S. 3734 (94th): An original bill to approve the sale of certain naval vessels, and for other purposes.
- S.J.Res. 23 (94th): A joint resolution to restore posthumously full rights of citizenship to General R. E. Lee.
- S.J.Res. 70 (94th): A joint resolution to extend support under the joint resolution providing for Allen J. Ellender Fellowships to disadvantaged secondary school students and for other purposes.
Does 3 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 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Byrd sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Economics and Public Finance (35%) Taxation (23%) International Affairs (15%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (12%) Arts, Culture, Religion (8%) Energy (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Byrd recently introduced the following legislation:
- S.Con.Res. 31 (97th): A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Congress that both Houses …
- S.Res. 118 (97th): A resolution commending the Cultural Laureate Program.
- S. 955 (97th): A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 with respect …
- S. 684 (97th): Rules Review Act of 1981
- S.J.Res. 26 (97th): A joint resolution to amend the Constitution to provide for a balanced …
- S. 148 (97th): A bill to amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to require …
- S. 149 (97th): A bill to amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to mandate …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1966 to Dec 1982, Byrd missed 368 of 8,080 roll call votes, which is 4.6%. This is better than the median of 7.2% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 1982. 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.
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
