A longtime staffer for Majority Leader Mike Mansfield on the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, he played a key role in the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society legislation.

Following Mansfield's retirement, Ferris briefly worked for House Speaker Tip O'Neill before being nominated by President Jimmy Carter to chair the Federal Communications Commission in 1977.

Faced with the prospect of being drafted into the United States Army, Ferris applied for Navy officer candidate school in 1954 and entered active service the following year.

[5] Eventually he attained the rank of lieutenant (junior grade) and was made chief engineer on the destroyer USS Brinkley Bass (DD-887).

[6][5] From 1958 to 1960 he was on assignment as an assistant professor of naval science at Harvard University, teaching celestial navigation and marine engineering to Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets.