William “Bill” Alexander Jr., former Representative for Arkansas's 1st Congressional District

Alexander was the representative for Arkansas’s 1^st congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1969 to 1992.

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Alexander 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 liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Alexander sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1987 to Oct 9, 1992. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Alexander was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 13 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

Alexander sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Taxation (19%) Families (15%) Immigration (15%) Environmental Protection (11%) Water Resources Development (11%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (11%) Economics and Public Finance (11%) Government Operations and Politics (7%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1969 to Oct 1992, Alexander missed 1,943 of 11,642 roll call votes, which is 16.7%. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1969 Jan-Mar	16	1	6.2%	52^nd
1969 Apr-Jun	28	4	14.3%	64^th
1969 Jul-Sep	45	4	8.9%	43^rd
1969 Oct-Dec	88	12	13.6%	60^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	7	20.0%	75^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	16	21.6%	65^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	22	28.9%	87^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	13	16.0%	58^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	6	27.3%	84^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	35	38.9%	95^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	25	33.8%	94^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	59	44.0%	97^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	27	42.2%	92^nd
1972 Apr-Jun	114	37	32.5%	89^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	13	12.9%	70^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	12	24.0%	70^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	1	2.8%	26^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	24	12.6%	73^rd
1973 Jul-Sep	131	31	23.7%	92^nd
1973 Oct-Dec	182	38	20.9%	85^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	24	30.4%	95^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	18	10.6%	53^rd
1974 Jul-Sep	148	18	12.2%	77^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	31	22.0%	88^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	14	20.6%	92^nd
1975 Apr-Jun	199	24	12.1%	78^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	27	17.5%	86^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	14	7.3%	63^rd
1976 Jan-Mar	106	17	16.0%	85^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	26	9.7%	61^st
1976 Jul-Sep	281	52	18.5%	88^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	7	7.0%	60^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	15	5.5%	43^rd
1977 Jul-Sep	198	21	10.6%	76^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	33	24.4%	98^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	21	14.0%	81^st
1978 Apr-Jun	300	86	28.7%	92^nd
1978 Jul-Sep	308	44	14.3%	76^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	12	15.8%	86^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	27	42.9%	98^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	27	12.2%	80^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	54	27.3%	97^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	36	18.9%	85^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	59	39.9%	98^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	20	10.2%	61^st
1980 Jul-Sep	192	43	22.4%	92^nd
1980 Oct-Dec	67	9	13.4%	64^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	2	13.3%	73^rd
1981 Apr-Jun	90	5	5.6%	46^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	5	4.7%	49^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	13	9.2%	64^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	1	2.1%	27^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	4	3.4%	41^st
1982 Jul-Sep	193	4	2.1%	17^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	38	38.4%	96^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	6	14.0%	77^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	51	28.0%	97^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	22	16.9%	96^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	18	12.6%	85^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	15	28.3%	94^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	45	20.2%	95^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	48	50.0%	99^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	24	66.7%	99^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	13	8.4%	78^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	13	12.9%	90^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	17	11.5%	91^st
1986 Jan-Mar	61	9	14.8%	78^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	18	14.1%	93^rd
1986 Jul-Sep	202	10	5.0%	63^rd
1986 Oct-Oct	60	5	8.3%	73^rd
1987 Jan-Mar	39	1	2.6%	36^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	15	8.0%	73^rd
1987 Jul-Sep	95	11	11.6%	87^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	28	16.8%	93^rd
1988 Feb-Mar	49	5	10.2%	74^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	14	8.7%	77^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	33	21.7%	97^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	3	3.4%	57^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	55^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	4	3.8%	53^rd
1989 Jul-Sep	128	2	1.6%	34^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	4	3.3%	42^nd
1990 Jan-Mar	60	1	1.7%	31^st
1990 Apr-Jun	150	52	34.7%	99^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	13	7.1%	82^nd
1990 Oct-Oct	143	16	11.2%	89^th
1991 Jan-Mar	62	1	1.6%	29^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	21	15.1%	95^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	11	13.6%	87^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	10	6.2%	77^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	5	7.6%	69^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	52	28.1%	96^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	67	34.2%	96^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	21	51.2%	97^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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. William “Bill” Alexander Jr.

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