McCormack was the representative for Washington’s 4th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1971 to 1980.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
McCormack 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 McCormack sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 14, 1975 to Dec 13, 1980. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
McCormack was the primary sponsor of 15 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 7865 (96th): Nuclear Safety, Research, Demonstration, and Development Act of 1980
- H.R. 6308 (96th): Magnetic Fusion Engineering Act of 1980
- H.R. 5900 (96th): A bill to amend the Act of August 9, 1955 (69 Stat. 539)(25 U.S.C. 415), as amended, to authorize a ninety-nine-year lease for the Moses Allotment Numbered …
- H.R. 2757 (96th): A bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to engage in a feasibility study.
- H.R. 12874 (95th): Solar Photovoltaic Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Act
- H.R. 10581 (95th): An Act relating to judgment funds awarded by the Indian Claims Commission to certain Indian tribes, and for other purposes.
- H.R. 14148 (95th): A bill designating the “Justice William O. Douglas Federal Building”.
Does 15 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
McCormack sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Energy (31%) Government Operations and Politics (23%) Taxation (12%) Water Resources Development (12%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (6%) Housing and Community Development (6%) Science, Technology, Communications (5%) Education (4%)
Recently Introduced Bills
McCormack recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 8273 (96th): A bill for the relief of Amineh Alayan, Amir Alayan, Gertrud Kunz …
- H.R. 8274 (96th): A bill for the relief of Clive Anthony Lewis, Karen Lewis, and …
- H.R. 7865 (96th): Nuclear Safety, Research, Demonstration, and Development Act of 1980
- H.R. 7418 (96th): Nuclear Waste Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1980
- H.R. 7190 (96th): Nuclear Safety Research and Development Act of 1980
- H.R. 7078 (96th): Nuclear Safety Research and Development Act of 1980
- H.R. 6774 (96th): A bill to amend the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1971 to Dec 1980, McCormack missed 729 of 5,816 roll call votes, which is 12.5%. This is worse 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
