Harris was the representative for Virginia’s 8th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1975 to 1980.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Harris is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives 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 Harris sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 14, 1975 to Dec 13, 1980. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Harris was the primary sponsor of 9 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 5687 (96th): A bill for the relief of Michael G. Macdonald.
- H.R. 5048 (96th): Manassas National Battlefield Park Amendments of 1980
- H.R. 11003 (95th): A bill to clarify the authority for employment of personnel in the White House Office and the Executive Residence at the White House, to clarify the authority …
- H.R. 11002 (95th): Contract Disputes Act
- H.R. 2558 (95th): A bill for the relief of Dr. John Alexis L. S. Tam, and Yeut Shum Tam.
- H.R. 12508 (95th): A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to facilitate the admission into the United States of more than two adopted children, and to provide for …
- H.R. 13247 (95th): A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to facilitate the admission into the United States of more than two adopted children, and to provide for …
Does 9 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
Harris sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (25%) Taxation (23%) Housing and Community Development (12%) Private Legislation (12%) Social Welfare (8%) Economics and Public Finance (7%) Education (6%) Transportation and Public Works (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Harris recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.Con.Res. 460 (96th): A concurrent resolution requesting the President to return the enrolled bill (H.R. …
- H.R. 8099 (96th): Handicapped Financial Security Tax Act of 1980
- H.R. 7924 (96th): A bill for the relief of Ludmilla Schneider.
- H.R. 7674 (96th): Consultant Reform Act of 1980
- H.R. 7658 (96th): A bill to amend the National Capital Transportation Act of 1969 to …
- H.Con.Res. 365 (96th): A concurrent resolution to express the sense of Congress that it must …
- H.R. 7431 (96th): A bill to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1975 to Dec 1980, Harris missed 61 of 4,089 roll call votes, which is 1.5%. This is better than the median of 8.6% among the lifetime records of representatives 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.
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
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
