Rep. William Moorhead

Former Representative for Pennsylvania’s 14^th District

Moorhead was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 14^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1963 to 1980.

He was previously the representative for Pennsylvania’s 28^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1959 to 1962.

Bioguide

Photo of Rep. William Moorhead [D-PA14, 1963-1980]

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Moorhead 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 Moorhead sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 14, 1975 to Dec 13, 1980. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Moorhead was the primary sponsor of 27 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 27 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

Moorhead sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Economics and Public Finance (24%) Government Operations and Politics (23%) Finance and Financial Sector (13%) Armed Forces and National Security (11%) Labor and Employment (11%) Energy (7%) Housing and Community Development (6%) Taxation (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Moorhead recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1959 to Dec 1980, Moorhead missed 818 of 7,782 roll call votes, which is 10.5%. This is on par with 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1959 Jan-Apr	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 May-Aug	54	1	1.9%	56^th
1959 Sep-Sep	17	0	0.0%	0^th
1960 Feb-Apr	23	0	0.0%	0^th
1960 May-Aug	70	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 Jan-Apr	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 May-Aug	65	1	1.5%	46^th
1961 Sep-Sep	29	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jan-Mar	21	1	4.8%	64^th
1962 Apr-Jun	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jul-Sep	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Oct-Oct	22	1	4.5%	72^nd
1963 Jan-Mar	9	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jul-Sep	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Oct-Dec	50	2	4.0%	46^th
1964 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Apr-Jun	34	1	2.9%	57^th
1964 Jul-Sep	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Oct-Oct	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	28	4	14.3%	79^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	7	13.2%	65^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	10	10.2%	65^th
1965 Oct-Oct	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	10	33.3%	95^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	3	5.9%	32^nd
1966 Jul-Sep	72	19	26.4%	78^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	7	17.5%	50^th
1967 Jan-Mar	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Apr-Jun	57	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	3	5.1%	68^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	3	3.1%	58^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	1	2.6%	59^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	1	1.3%	24^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	6	6.6%	69^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	8	32.0%	90^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	1	6.2%	55^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	3	10.7%	53^rd
1969 Jul-Sep	45	1	2.2%	14^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	12	13.6%	57^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	5	14.3%	63^rd
1970 Apr-Jun	74	34	45.9%	92^nd
1970 Jul-Sep	76	6	7.9%	33^rd
1970 Oct-Dec	81	19	23.5%	70^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	5	22.7%	83^rd
1971 Apr-Jun	90	10	11.1%	44^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	11	14.9%	76^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	12	9.0%	41^st
1972 Jan-Mar	64	12	18.8%	80^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	19	16.7%	62^nd
1972 Jul-Sep	101	9	8.9%	50^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	4	8.0%	34^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	4	11.1%	61^st
1973 Apr-Jun	191	25	13.1%	74^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	23	17.6%	89^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	15	8.2%	60^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	10	12.7%	69^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	11	6.5%	35^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	9	6.1%	57^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	17	12.1%	60^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	11	16.2%	84^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	11	5.5%	48^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	9	5.8%	52^nd
1975 Oct-Dec	191	30	15.7%	90^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	5	4.7%	44^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	18	6.7%	37^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	38	13.5%	77^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	1	14.3%	72^nd
1977 Jan-Mar	100	6	6.0%	50^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	27	9.9%	66^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	3	1.5%	17^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	0	0.0%	0^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	18	12.0%	72^nd
1978 Apr-Jun	300	25	8.3%	52^nd
1978 Jul-Sep	308	30	9.7%	60^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	3	3.9%	34^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	2	3.2%	43^rd
1979 Apr-Jun	221	28	12.7%	73^rd
1979 Jul-Sep	198	17	8.6%	60^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	35	18.4%	79^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	20	13.5%	68^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	24	12.2%	65^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	78	40.6%	97^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	13	19.4%	67^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