President Gerald Ford
Former President of the United States
Ford was President of the United States and was a Republican. He served from 1974 to 1977.
He was previously Vice President of the United States as a Republican from 1973 to 1974; and the representative for Michigan’s 5th congressional district as a Republican from 1949 to 1974.
![Photo of President Gerald Ford [R, 1974-1977]](/static/legislator-photos/404212-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Ford is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1974 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 Ford sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1973 to Dec 20, 1974. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Ford was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:
Does 1 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 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Ford sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Armed Forces and National Security (38%) Government Operations and Politics (38%) Social Welfare (25%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Ford recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.J.Res. 734 (93rd): Joint resolution to authorize and request the President to call a White …
- H.Res. 534 (93rd): A resolution electing Robert E. Bauman, of Maryland, as a member of …
- H.R. 8341 (93rd): Independent Oil Marketers Supply Act
- H.J.Res. 595 (93rd): Joint resolution providing for the orderly review of fee-paid oil import licenses;
- H.Res. 422 (93rd): Resolution authorizing the President to proclaim June 3, 1973, as “National MIA-POW …
- H.R. 8174 (93rd): A bill to amend the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of …
- H.J.Res. 559 (93rd): Nonpartisan Commission on Campaign Reform Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1949 to Dec 1974, Ford missed 286 of 4,028 roll call votes, which is 7.1%. This is better than the median of 9.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1974. 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.
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
