Database of Historical Congressional Statistics
Principal Investigators
Elaine K. Swift
Robert G. Brookshire
David T. Canon
Evelyn C. Fink
John R. Hibbing
Brian D. Humes
Michael J. Malbin
Kenneth C. Martis
March 2001
Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research
P.O. Box 1248
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106
BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION
Publications based on ICPSR data collections should acknowledge those sources by means of bibliographic citations. To ensure that such source attributions are captured for social science bibliographic utilities, citations must appear in footnotes or in the reference section of publications. The bibliographic citation for this data collection is:
Elaine K. Swift, Robert G. Brookshire, David T. Canon, Evelyn C. Fink, John R. Hibbing, Brian D. Humes, Michael J. Malbin and Kenneth C. Martis. DATABASE OF CONGRESSIONAL HISTORICAL STATISTICS [Computer file]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 2000.
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON USE OF ICPSR RESOURCES
To provide funding agencies with essential information about use of archival resources and to facilitate the exchange of information about ICPSR participants' research activities, users of ICPSR data are requested to send to ICPSR bibliographic citations for each completed manuscript or thesis abstract. Please indicate in a cover letter which data were used.
DATA DISCLAIMER
The original collector of the data, ICPSR, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for uses of this collection or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was truly the work of dozens of dedicated researchers and students. We would like to thank our board members, who gave us much advice and encouragement over the years: David W. Brady (Stanford University), Joseph Cooper (Johns Hopkins University), Michael Mezey DePaul University), Nelson W. Polsby (University of California at Berkeley), the late H. Douglas Price (Harvard University), David Rohde (Michigan State University), Joel Silbey (Cornell University), and Barbara Sinclair (University of California at Los Angeles).
We would also like to thank Thomas Skladony, who had the idea that formed the basis of the project; National Science Foundation staff Jim Campbell (now at SDUNY-Buffalo), Frank Scioli, and Rick Wilson (now back at Rice University).
Special thanks also go to Garrison Nelson of the University of Vermont and Charles Stewart III of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who compiled the House and Senate standing committee data set. Research assistance on compiling the data for the select committees was provided by Greg Flemming, Brian Kroeger, and Robert Turner.
Our thanks to the following graduate students and former graduate students from the University at Albany, State University of New York, whose work contributed substantially to the Presidential Proposal and Votes-on-Proposals database files: Victoria Farrar-Myers, Troy Smith, Leah Murray, Timothy Gordinier, Christopher Grill, Nicholas Jenny, Krista Ketterer, Michael Korzi, Christopher Latimer, Sean Reed, and Richard Sauerzopf.
We also received significant assistance from Andrew Rudalevidge, a Ph.D. student from Harvard University, who error checked the files from Truman through Bush and produced a read-me text file (appended to but not incorporated in the database) for requests during President Clinton's first four years in office.
Evelyn Fink and Brian Humes would like to thank the following graduate students: Jessica Olson, Christine Pappas, Steve Showalter, Linda Swanson, and Cameron Thies.
David Canon would like to thank John Fieno.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 3
Introduction 5
Study Description 5
Data About Members of Congress 5
The Member Table 5
The Serves Table 5
The Party Table 5
Data About Congressional Committees 6
The Committee Table 6
Data About Congressional Elections 6
The Election Table 6
Data About Roll Call Votes 6
The Rollcall Table 6
The Issue Table 6
The Rctext Table 6
The Votes Table 7
Data About Presidential Requests 7
The Request Table 7
The Rollreq Table 7
Codebook Description 7
Table and Field Name List 8
Committee Table 8
Election Table 8
Issue Table 9
Member Table 9
Party Table 10
The Rctext Table 11
The Request Table 11
The Rollcall Table 11
The Rollreq Table 12
The Serves Table 12
The Votes Table 12
Codebook 13
Data About Members of Congress 13
The Member Table 13
The Serves Table 35
The Party Table 51
Data About Congressional Committees 65
The Committee Table 65
Data About Congressional Elections 87
The Election Table 87
Data About Roll Call Votes 92
The Rollcall Table 92
The Issue Table 93
The RCText Table 99
The Votes Table 100
Data About Presidential Requests 101
The Request Table 101
The Rollreq Table 104
References 106
Introduction
Study Description
This Oracle database is composed of twelve tables that contain fields describing characteristics of members of congress and their activities from the first through the hundredth congresses, 1789 to 1989. Some tables contain records for additional congresses. The rows in the various tables describe different entities. For example, in the Votes table, each row contains a record of a vote by a particular member on a particular roll call vote. The Member table contains a record for each member of congress, while the Serves table contains a record for each member for every congress in which he or she served. See the descriptions of each table for details about its contents. The data from the various tables can be combined by matching the fields that they have in common. Support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation under grants SES 9309877, SES 93-10057, SES 9223337, SBR-93-18537, SES 9223337, SES 9308683, SES 9319225, SES-9109335, SBR 9496324 and SBR-9310112.
Data About Members of Congress
The Member Table
The original source of the biographical data contained in the Member table was the ICPSR’s Roster of United States Congressional Officeholders and Biographical Characteristics of Members of the United States Congress, 1789-1993: Merged Data (ICPSR 7803). John R. Hibbing edited these data for inclusion in this database. There is a row in the table for each member of congress from the 1st to the 103rd congress. There are 11,364 rows in this table. Data in this table include such items as the name, sex, place and date of birth, college attended, and other biographical facts.
The Serves Table
The data in this table were taken from the Roster of United States Congressional Officeholders and Biographical Characteristics of Members of the United States Congress, 1789-1993: Merged Data (ICPSR 7803) as edited by John R. Hibbing for inclusion in this database. Each row represents the service of one member in one congress. Data include what state and district the member represented, the member’s dates of service in this congress, and other facts. There are data from the 1st to the 103rd congresses. This table contains 42,304 rows.
The Party Table
The data in the Party table were compiled by David T. Canon based on The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress: 1789-1989 (New York: Macmillan, 1989) by Kenneth C. Martis. There is a row in this table for each member of congress for each congress in which he or she served. There are records from the 1st to the 101st congresses. The data consist of identifying information for each member and the member’s party affiliation. For each member about whom authorities disagree on assigning the party affiliation, more than one code is given. There are 40,942 rows in this table.
Data About Congressional Committees
The Committee Table
The Committee table contains data describing the service of each member of Congress on congressional committees. The data in this table were compiled by David T. Canon based on data originally collected by Garrison Nelson. Each row of the table represents an instance of a single member serving on a single committee in a single congress. The data include the name of the member, an identifier for the committee, and the dates between which the member served on the committee. There are 116,962 rows in this table, and include records through the 102nd congress.
Data About Congressional Elections
The Election Table
The data in the Election table were compiled from United States Historical Election Returns, 1824-1968 (ICPSR 0001) as updated by David T. Canon. There is a row for each candidate in each election for the house and senate from the 19th to the 104th congress. There are 94,640 rows. The rows contain data such as the candidates’ name, the states and districts in which they were running, vote totals and vote percentages.
Data About Roll Call Votes
The Rollcall Table
These data are taken from United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1987: Reformatted Data (ICPSR 9822). This table contains an entry for every roll call vote taken in congress from the 1st through the 100th congresses. The data include a short description of the roll call, the number of yea and nay votes, the date of the roll call, and the sponsor’s name. There are 77,927 rows in this table.
The Issue Table
The data in the Issues table were originally compiled by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole, and were based on United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1987: Reformatted Data (ICPSR 9822) as expanded and updated by Rosenthal and Poole. There is a row in the table for each roll call vote taken in each chamber from the 1st through the 100th congress. The political issues that this roll call vote concerns are coded in each row. Codings by Peltzman (1984), Clausen (1983) and Poole and Rosenthal are included. There are 77,928 rows in this table.
The Rctext Table
In the original codebooks for the United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1987: Reformatted Data (ICPSR 9822), there are one or more lines of text describing each roll call. This table contains those lines of text and identifying information for each roll call. There are 281,566 rows in this table describing 77,926 roll call votes taken from the 1st to 100th congresses.
The Votes Table
These data are taken from United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1987: Reformatted Data (ICPSR 9822). Each row represents a single vote by a single member on a single roll call. The data include an identifier for the member, an identifier for the roll call, and a code for the vote cast by the member. There are 16,021,696 rows in this table.
Data About Presidential Requests
The Request Table
Michael J. Malbin collected the data in the Request table for inclusion in this database. Each row in this table represents a request by a president for action by congress. The data include the date of the request, a description of the request, and a citation to the document containing the request. There are 12,500 rows in the table.
The Rollreq Table
These data were compiled by Michael J. Malbin. This table links the presidential requests described in the Request table with the roll call votes in the Rollcall table. Data in this table include identifiers which link to the appropriate roll call and request in the other tables, and information on the president’s position, whether his position was supported by the roll call, and the type of vote. This table contains 6,932 rows and contains data from the 1st to the 101st congresses.
Also included is a text file, REQESTS.TXT. For Washington through Truman, this file contains direct quotations to support the short description of the request in the Request table. For Eisenhower through Bush, quotations are generally not given. Occasional editor's notes, including references to similar, but not identical requests, may be present. These are neither systematic nor exhaustive. Occasional editor's notes may also be found for Presidents before Eisenhower. All editor's note are enclosed in square brackets.
Codebook Description
This codebook follows the format shown in the entry below. Each field is followed by a notation of the type of data (number or character). If the data are character (i.e., text), the length of the field is given. This is followed by a description of the contents of the field. For coded numeric data, the meanings of the codes are provided.
Example:
LAST_JUDICIAL_OFFICE NUMBER
Last judicial office held prior to service in Congress.
00 No judicial office mentioned in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989
01 State
02 County
03 Federal District Court
04 Municipal
05 Customs Court
06 Tax Court and Court of Military Appeals
07 Claims Court
08 United States Supreme Court
09 United States Circuit
-1 MD: missing data
Table and Field Name List
Committee Table
CONGRESS
CONGRESS_SESSION
MEMBER_ID
COMMITTEE
CHAMBER
PARTY
TYPE
NAME
PARTY_STATUS
RANK
MONTH_APPOINT
DAY_APPOINT
YEAR_APPOINT
MONTH_TERM
DAY_TERM
YEAR_TERM
Election Table
CAND_ID
STATE
YEAR
OFFICE
DISTRICT
ELECTYPE
VOTE
PARTY
CONGRESS
TOTAL
CANDS
PERCENT1
PERCENT2
MARGIN
CANDPCT
PCTDIFF
OUTCOME
INCUMB
NAME
Issue Table
CONGRESS
ROLLCALL
CHAMBER
CLAUSEN
PELTZ1
PELTZ2
ISSUE1
ISSUE2
Member Table
MEMBER_ID
FULL_NAME
SEX
ICPSR_STATE_BORN
BORN_AND_REP_SAME_STATE
BORN_AND_REP_SAME_REGION
ICPSR_RELATIVES_CODE
COLLAPSED_RELATIVES
SECONDARY_EDUCATION
COLLEGE_ATTENDED
COLLAPSED_COLLEGE
MILITARY_SERVICE
COLLAPSED_MILITARY
LAST_OCCUPATION
COLLAPSED_LAST_OCCUPATION
LAST_NONJ_MUN_OFFICE
COLLAPSED_LAST_NONJ_MUN_OFF
ANY_MUNICIPAL_OFFICE_PRE
LAST_NONJ_CNTY_OFFICE
COLLAPSED_LAST_NONJ_CNTY_OFF
ANY_COUNTY_OFFICE_PRE
ANY_LOCAL_OFFICE_PRE
LAST_NONJ_STATE_OFFICE
COLLAPSED_LAST_NONJ_STATE_OFF
ANY_STATE_OFFICE_PRE
LAST_NONJ_FEDERAL_OFFICE
COLLAPSED_LAST_NONJ_FED_OFF
ANY_FEDERAL_OFFICE_PRE
LAST_JUDICIAL_OFFICE
COLLAPSED_LAST_JUDICIAL_OFF
PRIOR_5LEVELS_OF_GOVERNMENT
PRIOR_3LEVELS_OF_GOVERNMENT
SEQUENCE_OF_CONG_SERVICE
AGE_FIRST_ENTERED_CONGRESS
FIRST_CONGRESS_ELECTED
YEAR_FIRST_ELECTED_CONGRESS
YEAR_LAST_SERVED_CONGRESS
TOTAL_YEARS_SERVED_CONGRESS
WHY_LEFT_CONGRESS
FIRST_HOUSE_SERVED
YEAR_FIRST_ELECTED_HOUSE
YEAR_LAST_SERVED_HOUSE
TOTAL_YEARS_SERVED_HOUSE
WHY_LEFT_HOUSE
TOTAL_YRS_HOUSE_PRE_SENATE
FIRST_SENATE_SERVED
YEAR_FIRST_ELECTED_SENATE
YEAR_LAST_SERVED_SENATE
TOTAL_YEARS_SERVED_SENATE
WHY_LEFT_SENATE
FIRST_OCCUPATION_POST
FIRST_NONJ_MUN_OFF_POST
COLLAPSED_FIRST_NONJ_MUN_OFF
ANY_MUN_OFFICE_POST
FIRST_NONJ_CNTY_OFF_POST
COLLAPSED_FIRST_NONJ_CNTY_OFF
ANY_COUNTY_OFFICE_POST
ANY_LOCAL_OFFICE_POST
FIRST_NONJ_STATE_OFF_POST
COLLAPSED_FIRST_NONJ_STATE_OFF
ANY_STATE_OFFICE_POST
FIRST_NONJ_FED_OFFICE_POST
COLLAPSED_FIRST_NONJ_FED_OFF
ANY_FEDERAL_OFFICE_POST
FIRST_JUDICIAL_OFFICE_POST
COLLAPSED_FIRST_JUDICIAL_OFF
POST_5LEVELS_OF_GOVERNMENT
POST_3LEVELS_OF_GOVERNMENT
Party Table
STALPHA
STATE
MCNAME
BIOGDIR
GUIDE
CONGRESS
DIST
PARTY
BELL
DAUER
HOADLEY
HENDERSN
FIRSTFED
CUNNINGH
LONGPTY
NILES
HICKEY
NIELSEN
GLOBE
LYNN
LINDEEN
HATZENBU