Rep. Richard Bolling

Former Representative for Missouri’s 5^th District

Bolling was the representative for Missouri’s 5^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1949 to 1982.

Bioguide

Photo of Rep. Richard Bolling [D-MO5, 1949-1982]

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Bolling is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1982 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 Bolling sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1977 to Dec 21, 1982. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Bolling was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:

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Does 3 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

Bolling sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (100%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Bolling recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1949 to Dec 1982, Bolling missed 2,102 of 9,539 roll call votes, which is 22.0%. This is much worse than the median of 7.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1982. 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
1949 Jan-Mar	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Apr-Jun	27	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jul-Sep	43	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Oct-Oct	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jan-Mar	54	3	5.6%	70^th
1950 Apr-Jun	30	1	3.3%	40^th
1950 Jul-Sep	59	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Dec-Dec	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Jan 81st Congress	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Apr-Jun	40	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jul-Sep	39	2	5.1%	80^th
1951 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Jan-Mar	22	2	9.1%	80^th
1952 Apr-Jun	40	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Jul-Jul	10	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jan-Mar	13	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Apr-Jun	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jul-Aug	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Apr-Jun	24	2	8.3%	74^th
1954 Jul-Aug	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Jan-Mar	21	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Apr-Jun	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Jul-Aug	19	0	0.0%	0^th
1956 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1956 Apr-Jun	30	1	3.3%	71^st
1956 Jul-Jul	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1957 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1957 Apr-Jun	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1957 Jul-Aug	52	3	5.8%	86^th
1958 Jan-Mar	21	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Apr-Jun	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Jul-Aug	40	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 Jan-Apr	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 May-Aug	54	0	0.0%	0^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	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 Sep-Sep	29	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jan-Mar	21	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Apr-Jun	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jul-Sep	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Oct-Oct	22	0	0.0%	0^th
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	1	2.0%	30^th
1964 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Apr-Jun	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Oct-Oct	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	28	6	21.4%	88^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	10	18.9%	81^st
1965 Jul-Sep	98	26	26.5%	93^rd
1965 Oct-Oct	22	13	59.1%	99^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	11	36.7%	96^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	22	43.1%	96^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	39	54.2%	97^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	28	70.0%	86^th
1967 Jan-Mar	31	11	35.5%	99^th
1967 Apr-Jun	57	10	17.5%	99^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	9	15.3%	99^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	30	30.6%	98^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	3	7.9%	89^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	13	16.5%	98^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	26	28.6%	98^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	6	24.0%	78^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	1	6.2%	55^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	3	10.7%	54^th
1969 Jul-Sep	45	10	22.2%	85^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	38	43.2%	95^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	11	31.4%	90^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	17	23.0%	68^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	12	15.8%	65^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	48	59.3%	97^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	12	13.3%	54^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	4	5.4%	39^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	22	16.4%	66^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	3	4.7%	25^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	20	17.5%	69^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	15	14.9%	66^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	20	40.0%	88^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	4	11.1%	65^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	32	16.8%	84^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	19	14.5%	86^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	84	46.2%	95^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	4	5.1%	32^nd
1974 Apr-Jun	170	28	16.5%	79^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	12	8.1%	70^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	25	17.7%	78^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	2	2.9%	30^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	7	3.5%	31^st
1975 Jul-Sep	154	5	3.2%	28^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	24	12.6%	85^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	30	28.3%	96^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	50	18.7%	83^rd
1976 Jul-Sep	281	44	15.7%	84^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	7	7.0%	58^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	35	12.8%	79^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	87	43.9%	99^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	82	60.7%	100^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	25	16.7%	84^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	55	18.3%	85^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	66	21.4%	89^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	17	22.4%	90^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	9	14.3%	80^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	123	55.7%	99^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	132	66.7%	99^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	64	33.7%	97^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	3	2.0%	10^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	16	8.1%	49^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	19	9.9%	60^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	39	58.2%	98^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	24	26.7%	94^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	40	37.7%	99^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	101	71.1%	100^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	7	14.6%	69^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	61	51.3%	98^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	121	62.7%	98^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	85	85.9%	99^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