Sen. Howard Baker

Former Senator for Tennessee

Baker was a senator from Tennessee and was a Republican. He served from 1967 to 1984.

Bioguide

Photo of Sen. Howard Baker [R-TN, 1967-1984]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Baker is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 1984 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 Baker sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 15, 1979 to Oct 12, 1984. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Baker was the primary sponsor of 16 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 16 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

Baker sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (27%) International Affairs (22%) Private Legislation (12%) Transportation and Public Works (10%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (7%) Economics and Public Finance (7%) Environmental Protection (7%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Baker recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1967 to Oct 1984, Baker missed 1,648 of 8,504 roll call votes, which is 19.4%. This is much worse than the median of 6.9% among the lifetime records of senators 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
1967 Jan-Mar	53	4	7.5%	19^th
1967 Apr-Jun	70	4	5.7%	25^th
1967 Jul-Sep	81	18	22.2%	75^th
1967 Oct-Dec	111	30	27.0%	81^st
1968 Jan-Mar	69	15	21.7%	75^th
1968 Apr-Jun	96	26	27.1%	69^th
1968 Jul-Sep	89	16	18.0%	50^th
1968 Oct-Oct	27	17	63.0%	81^st
1969 Jan-Mar	17	3	17.6%	78^th
1969 Apr-Jun	26	6	23.1%	78^th
1969 Jul-Sep	44	5	11.4%	65^th
1969 Oct-Dec	158	28	17.7%	48^th
1970 Jan-Mar	100	32	32.0%	74^th
1970 Apr-Jun	92	5	5.4%	26^th
1970 Jul-Sep	123	38	30.9%	74^th
1970 Oct-Dec	106	1	0.9%	4^th
1971 Feb-Mar	25	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Apr-Jun	89	19	21.3%	64^th
1971 Jul-Sep	109	24	22.0%	71^st
1971 Oct-Dec	202	35	17.3%	57^th
1972 Jan-Mar	119	24	20.2%	64^th
1972 Apr-Jun	130	51	39.2%	93^rd
1972 Jul-Sep	206	124	60.2%	96^th
1972 Oct-Oct	75	62	82.7%	93^rd
1973 Jan-Mar	67	20	29.9%	86^th
1973 Apr-Jun	192	27	14.1%	77^th
1973 Jul-Sep	167	23	13.8%	71^st
1973 Oct-Dec	168	77	45.8%	94^th
1974 Jan-Mar	94	10	10.6%	51^st
1974 Apr-Jun	179	14	7.8%	43^rd
1974 Jul-Sep	138	35	25.4%	78^th
1974 Oct-Dec	133	32	24.1%	70^th
1975 Jan-Mar	118	10	8.5%	64^th
1975 Apr-Jun	141	48	34.0%	95^th
1975 Jul-Sep	170	24	14.1%	81^st
1975 Oct-Dec	182	28	15.4%	76^th
1976 Jan-Mar	109	10	9.2%	57^th
1976 Apr-Jun	263	65	24.7%	86^th
1976 Jul-Sep	315	88	27.9%	88^th
1976 Oct-Oct	13	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	92	5	5.4%	37^th
1977 Apr-Jun	178	27	15.2%	75^th
1977 Jul-Sep	233	10	4.3%	37^th
1977 Oct-Dec	133	5	3.8%	19^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	10	12.8%	70^th
1978 Apr-Jun	119	26	21.8%	95^th
1978 Jul-Sep	237	64	27.0%	93^rd
1978 Oct-Oct	86	11	12.8%	61^st
1979 Feb-Mar	32	5	15.6%	84^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	21	17.4%	87^th
1979 Jul-Sep	171	52	30.4%	97^th
1979 Oct-Dec	184	114	62.0%	99^th
1980 Jan-Mar	67	45	67.2%	97^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	35	16.2%	83^rd
1980 Jul-Sep	179	27	15.1%	84^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	6	7.1%	35^th
1981 Jan-Mar	57	1	1.8%	31^st
1981 Apr-Jun	125	4	3.2%	47^th
1981 Jul-Sep	122	1	0.8%	19^th
1981 Oct-Dec	193	7	3.6%	29^th
1982 Feb-Mar	79	4	5.1%	69^th
1982 Apr-Jun	127	12	9.4%	71^st
1982 Jul-Sep	177	7	4.0%	56^th
1982 Oct-Dec	86	1	1.2%	32^nd
1983 Feb-Mar	54	2	3.7%	48^th
1983 Apr-Jun	122	11	9.0%	77^th
1983 Jul-Sep	92	6	6.5%	66^th
1983 Oct-Nov	103	4	3.9%	31^st
1984 Jan-Mar	45	2	4.4%	40^th
1984 Apr-Jun	144	13	9.0%	67^th
1984 Jul-Sep	68	12	17.6%	89^th
1984 Oct-Oct	34	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
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