William Jackson “Jack” Edwards, former Representative for Alabama's 1st Congressional District

Edwards was the representative for Alabama’s 1^st congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1965 to 1984.

Photo of Rep. William Jackson “Jack” Edwards [R-AL1, 1965-1984]

Enacted Legislation

Edwards was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:

H.R. 4921 (98th): A bill to provide for the selection of additional lands for inclusion within the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.
H.R. 2494 (97th): An act to designate the John Archibald Campbell United States Courthouse.
H.R. 6727 (96th): A bill to establish the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.
H.R. 1524 (94th): A bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study with respect to the feasibility of establishing the Bartram Trail as a national scenic …
H.J.Res. 417 (93rd): Joint resolution to authorize the President to issue annually a proclamation designating the month of May in each year as “National Arthritis Month”.

View All »

Does 5 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

Edwards sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Taxation (21%) Government Operations and Politics (18%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (13%) Private Legislation (13%) Environmental Protection (11%) Transportation and Public Works (8%) Labor and Employment (8%) Economics and Public Finance (8%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Edwards 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 Oct 1984, Edwards missed 841 of 8,847 roll call votes, which is 9.5%. This is worse than the median of 7.0% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1984. 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	3	10.7%	60^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	6	11.3%	63^rd
1965 Jul-Sep	98	8	8.2%	63^rd
1965 Oct-Oct	22	7	31.8%	89^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	11	21.6%	76^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	9	12.5%	48^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	33	82.5%	92^nd
1967 Jan-Mar	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Apr-Jun	57	3	5.3%	83^rd
1967 Jul-Sep	59	5	8.5%	94^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	4	4.1%	67^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	2	2.5%	50^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	3	12.0%	55^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	1	6.2%	55^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	4	14.3%	67^th
1969 Jul-Sep	45	6	13.3%	66^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	17	19.3%	78^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	18	24.3%	71^st
1970 Jul-Sep	76	15	19.7%	71^st
1970 Oct-Dec	81	16	19.8%	63^rd
1971 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	6	6.7%	22^nd
1971 Jul-Sep	74	10	13.5%	70^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	3	2.2%	12^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	5	7.8%	42^nd
1972 Apr-Jun	114	9	7.9%	38^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	30	29.7%	88^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	7	14.0%	51^st
1973 Jan-Mar	36	5	13.9%	70^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	17	8.9%	56^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	4	3.1%	37^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	11	6.0%	49^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	2	2.5%	21^st
1974 Apr-Jun	170	22	12.9%	66^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	5	3.4%	32^nd
1974 Oct-Dec	141	24	17.0%	78^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	7	10.3%	71^st
1975 Apr-Jun	199	2	1.0%	9^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	31	20.1%	94^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	0	0.0%	0^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	12	11.3%	73^rd
1976 Apr-Jun	267	27	10.1%	58^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	8	2.8%	26^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	8	8.0%	65^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	5	1.8%	15^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	28	14.1%	85^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	10	7.4%	56^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	11	7.3%	50^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	16	5.3%	36^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	12	3.9%	28^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	1	1.3%	13^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	3	4.8%	58^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	6	2.7%	19^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	17	8.6%	64^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	13	6.8%	35^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	52	35.1%	97^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	35	17.8%	88^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	14	7.3%	49^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	6	9.0%	47^th
1981 Jan-Mar	13	1	7.7%	71^st
1981 Apr-Jun	90	5	5.6%	44^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	5	4.7%	47^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	13	9.2%	62^nd
1982 Feb-Mar	48	5	10.4%	65^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	8	6.7%	66^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	13	6.7%	54^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	16	16.2%	76^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	6	14.0%	74^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	28	15.4%	86^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	5	3.8%	46^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	19	13.3%	83^rd
1984 Jan-Mar	53	4	7.5%	52^nd
1984 Apr-Jun	223	48	21.5%	93^rd
1984 Jul-Sep	96	9	9.4%	71^st
1984 Oct-Oct	36	1	2.8%	27^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
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. William Jackson “Jack” Edwards

Links

Follow GovTrack on social media for more updates:

On GovTrack Insider:

I have an opinion I want to share.

I need help, have a question, or want to schedule a tour.