James Howard, former Representative for New Jersey's 3rd Congressional District

Howard was the representative for New Jersey’s 3^rd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1965 to 1988.

Photo of Rep. James Howard [D-NJ3, 1965-1988]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Howard is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1988 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 Howard sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1983 to Oct 22, 1988. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Howard was the primary sponsor of 37 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 37 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

Howard sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Economics and Public Finance (26%) Government Operations and Politics (26%) Transportation and Public Works (19%) Environmental Protection (12%) Water Resources Development (5%) Taxation (4%) Education (4%) Arts, Culture, Religion (3%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Howard recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1965 to Mar 1988, Howard missed 1,129 of 10,270 roll call votes, which is 11.0%. This is much worse than the median of 5.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Mar 1988. 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
1965 Jan-Mar	28	4	14.3%	73^rd
1965 Apr-Jun	53	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	4	4.1%	40^th
1965 Oct-Oct	22	2	9.1%	48^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	1	3.3%	22^nd
1966 Apr-Jun	51	8	15.7%	63^rd
1966 Jul-Sep	72	23	31.9%	88^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	23	57.5%	78^th
1967 Jan-Mar	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Apr-Jun	57	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	1	1.7%	44^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	2	2.0%	40^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	2	5.3%	79^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	2	2.5%	48^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	2	2.2%	24^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	5	20.0%	74^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	3	18.8%	85^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	3	10.7%	51^st
1969 Jul-Sep	45	15	33.3%	97^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	25	28.4%	86^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	2	5.7%	27^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	7	9.5%	24^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	4	5.3%	20^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	9	11.1%	34^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	1	4.5%	26^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	11	12.2%	45^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	5	6.8%	43^rd
1971 Oct-Dec	134	18	13.4%	59^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	0	0.0%	0^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	7	6.1%	29^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	5	5.0%	24^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	12	24.0%	67^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	3	8.3%	54^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	22	11.5%	67^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	10	7.6%	62^nd
1973 Oct-Dec	182	7	3.8%	30^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	5	6.3%	37^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	81	47.6%	99^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	0	0.0%	0^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	70	49.6%	98^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	7	10.3%	74^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	21	10.6%	67^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	13	8.4%	62^nd
1975 Oct-Dec	191	25	13.1%	86^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	10	9.4%	64^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	39	14.6%	75^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	20	7.1%	53^rd
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	19	19.0%	89^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	22	8.1%	53^rd
1977 Jul-Sep	198	47	23.7%	95^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	29	21.5%	94^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	10	6.7%	44^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	129	43.0%	97^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	15	4.9%	34^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	5	6.6%	53^rd
1979 Jan-Mar	63	2	3.2%	46^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	6	2.7%	21^st
1979 Jul-Sep	198	7	3.5%	32^nd
1979 Oct-Dec	190	21	11.1%	58^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	4	2.7%	17^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	17	8.6%	53^rd
1980 Jul-Sep	192	23	12.0%	69^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	1	1.5%	8^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	3	20.0%	85^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	9	10.0%	68^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	6	5.7%	55^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	19	13.4%	79^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	2	4.2%	37^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	3	2.5%	30^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	0	0.0%	0^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	1	1.0%	8^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	2	4.7%	33^rd
1983 Apr-Jun	182	21	11.5%	71^st
1983 Jul-Sep	130	11	8.5%	79^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	26	18.2%	93^rd
1984 Jan-Mar	53	6	11.3%	72^nd
1984 Apr-Jun	223	13	5.8%	46^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	16	16.7%	89^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	20	55.6%	98^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	2	5.6%	36^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	4	2.6%	29^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	3	3.0%	38^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	2	1.4%	20^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	3	4.9%	38^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	3	2.3%	35^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	5	2.5%	38^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	4	6.7%	62^nd
1987 Jan-Mar	39	1	2.6%	34^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	1	0.5%	8^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	20	21.1%	94^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	25	15.0%	89^th
1988 Feb-Mar	43	2	4.7%	53^rd

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

Rep. James Howard

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