Ray was the representative for Georgia’s 3rd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1983 to 1992.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Ray is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1992 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 Ray sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1987 to Oct 9, 1992. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Ray was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 2416 (100th): A bill to establish the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and Preservation District in the State of Georgia, and for other purposes.
- H.J.Res. 64 (99th): A joint resolution designating Mother’s Day, May 12, 1985, to Father’s Day, June 16, 1985, as “Family Reunion Month”.
- H.J.Res. 272 (98th): A joint resolution designating Mother’s Day, May 8, 1983 to Father’s Day, June 19, 1983, as “Family Reunion Month”.
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
Ray sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Environmental Protection (57%) Armed Forces and National Security (43%)
Recent Bills
Some of Ray’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 4025 (102nd): To indemnify States, political subdivisions of States, and certain other entities from ...
- H.R. 4024 (102nd): To amend provisions of the comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ...
- H.R. 2179 (102nd): To amend provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ...
- H.R. 2112 (102nd): Subcontractor Payment Protection Act
- H.R. 1823 (101st): To amend title 38, United States Code, to require that burials be ...
- H.R. 4361 (100th): Civil Service Annuity Prompt Payment Act
- H.R. 4090 (100th): A bill to amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to modify the ...
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1983 to Oct 1992, Ray missed 489 of 4,571 roll call votes, which is 10.7%. This is much worse than the median of 4.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1992. 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
- 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
