Robert Packwood, former Senator for Oregon

Packwood was a senator from Oregon and was a Republican. He served from 1969 to 1995.

Alleged misconduct & resolution

On Sep. 5, 1995, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics investigated Packwood for sexual misconduct and abuse of power and recommended expulsion from the Senate. On Sep. 8, 1995, he resigned.

Sep. 5, 1995	Senate Select Committee on Ethics recommended expulsion from the Senate
Sep. 8, 1995	Resigned.

Photo of Sen. Robert Packwood [R-OR, 1969-1995]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Packwood is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 1996 positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Packwood sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Packwood was the primary sponsor of 48 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 48 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

Packwood sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Taxation (27%) Health (18%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (12%) Social Welfare (11%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (9%) Sports and Recreation (9%) Economics and Public Finance (7%) Environmental Protection (7%)

Recent Bills

Some of Packwood’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1969 to Sep 1995, Packwood missed 1,034 of 11,839 roll call votes, which is 8.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Sep 1995. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1969 Jan-Mar	17	1	5.9%	30^th
1969 Apr-Jun	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Jul-Sep	44	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Oct-Dec	158	14	8.9%	20^th
1970 Jan-Mar	100	51	51.0%	90^th
1970 Apr-Jun	92	8	8.7%	20^th
1970 Jul-Sep	123	23	18.7%	50^th
1970 Oct-Dec	106	6	5.7%	0^th
1971 Feb-Mar	25	10	40.0%	73^rd
1971 Apr-Jun	89	23	25.8%	73^rd
1971 Jul-Sep	109	4	3.7%	9^th
1971 Oct-Dec	202	41	20.3%	82^nd
1972 Jan-Mar	119	26	21.8%	73^rd
1972 Apr-Jun	130	20	15.4%	45^th
1972 Jul-Sep	206	6	2.9%	9^th
1972 Oct-Oct	75	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Jan-Mar	67	13	19.4%	81^st
1973 Apr-Jun	192	19	9.9%	56^th
1973 Jul-Sep	167	21	12.6%	75^th
1973 Oct-Dec	168	44	26.2%	94^th
1974 Jan-Mar	94	10	10.6%	56^th
1974 Apr-Jun	179	23	12.8%	75^th
1974 Jul-Sep	138	39	28.3%	94^th
1974 Oct-Dec	133	52	39.1%	94^th
1975 Jan-Mar	118	35	29.7%	90^th
1975 Apr-Jun	141	1	0.7%	5^th
1975 Jul-Sep	170	11	6.5%	45^th
1975 Oct-Dec	182	1	0.5%	0^th
1976 Jan-Mar	109	4	3.7%	25^th
1976 Apr-Jun	263	24	9.1%	55^th
1976 Jul-Sep	315	31	9.8%	40^th
1976 Oct-Oct	13	1	7.7%	30^th
1977 Jan-Mar	92	20	21.7%	76^th
1977 Apr-Jun	178	22	12.4%	68^th
1977 Jul-Sep	233	22	9.4%	80^th
1977 Oct-Dec	133	9	6.8%	24^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	15	19.2%	80^th
1978 Apr-Jun	119	18	15.1%	84^th
1978 Jul-Sep	237	4	1.7%	4^th
1978 Oct-Oct	86	7	8.1%	60^th
1979 Feb-Mar	32	10	31.2%	97^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	19	15.7%	89^th
1979 Jul-Sep	171	19	11.1%	73^rd
1979 Oct-Dec	184	16	8.7%	59^th
1980 Jan-Mar	67	1	1.5%	14^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	32	14.8%	70^th
1980 Jul-Sep	179	24	13.4%	89^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	17	20.2%	78^th
1981 Jan-Mar	57	1	1.8%	41^st
1981 Apr-Jun	125	5	4.0%	64^th
1981 Jul-Sep	122	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Oct-Dec	193	17	8.8%	73^rd
1982 Feb-Mar	79	2	2.5%	59^th
1982 Apr-Jun	127	4	3.1%	48^th
1982 Jul-Sep	177	2	1.1%	25^th
1982 Oct-Dec	86	1	1.2%	36^th
1983 Feb-Mar	54	5	9.3%	76^th
1983 Apr-Jun	122	5	4.1%	59^th
1983 Jul-Sep	92	7	7.6%	74^th
1983 Oct-Nov	103	6	5.8%	48^th
1984 Jan-Mar	45	0	0.0%	0^th
1984 Apr-Jun	144	12	8.3%	67^th
1984 Jul-Sep	68	2	2.9%	28^th
1984 Oct-Oct	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Jan-Mar	22	1	4.5%	60^th
1985 Apr-Jun	116	11	9.5%	92^nd
1985 Jul-Sep	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Oct-Dec	183	15	8.2%	79^th
1986 Jan-Mar	51	4	7.8%	77^th
1986 Apr-Jun	103	20	19.4%	98^th
1986 Jul-Sep	149	5	3.4%	69^th
1986 Oct-Oct	56	4	7.1%	85^th
1987 Jan-Mar	50	4	8.0%	77^th
1987 Apr-Jun	123	6	4.9%	58^th
1987 Jul-Sep	120	2	1.7%	22^nd
1987 Oct-Dec	127	6	4.7%	72^nd
1988 Jan-Mar	84	6	7.1%	48^th
1988 Apr-Jun	137	2	1.5%	22^nd
1988 Jul-Sep	127	5	3.9%	57^th
1988 Oct-Oct	31	2	6.5%	55^th
1989 Jan-Mar	26	1	3.8%	85^th
1989 Apr-Jun	77	4	5.2%	86^th
1989 Jul-Sep	118	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Oct-Nov	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jan-Mar	48	13	27.1%	99^th
1990 Apr-Jun	95	1	1.1%	42^nd
1990 Jul-Sep	114	1	0.9%	57^th
1990 Oct-Oct	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jan-Mar	41	1	2.4%	75^th
1991 Apr-Jun	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jul-Sep	96	6	6.2%	93^rd
1991 Oct-Nov	69	1	1.4%	58^th
1992 Jan-Mar	61	3	4.9%	80^th
1992 Apr-Jun	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jul-Sep	117	3	2.6%	51^st
1992 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Feb-Mar	93	1	1.1%	56^th
1993 Apr-Jun	99	1	1.0%	31^st
1993 Jul-Sep	109	1	0.9%	42^nd
1993 Oct-Nov	94	1	1.1%	42^nd
1994 Jan-Mar	86	9	10.5%	85^th
1994 Apr-Jun	92	5	5.4%	89^th
1994 Jul-Sep	136	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Oct-Dec	15	2	13.3%	86^th
1995 Jan-Mar	125	1	0.8%	42^nd
1995 Apr-Jun	171	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jul-Sep	184	0	0.0%	0^th

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
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Sen. Robert Packwood

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