Fattah was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 2nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1995 to 2016.
Misconduct
In 2016 Fattah was convicted for conspiracy, racketeering, bribery, fraud, falsification of records, making false statements, and money laundering after a 2015 House investigation had been launched. The House Committee on Ethics ended its investigation when Fattah resigned. Fattah resigned in 2016, two days after being convicted of the charges. He is currently serving a ten year sentence.
| Jun. 24, 2016 | House Committee on Ethics ended the investigation when Fattah resigned |
| 2016 | Fattah resigned in 2016, two days after being convicted of the charges. |
![Photo of Rep. Chaka Fattah [D-PA2, 1995-2016]](/static/legislator-photos/400130-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2015 Report Card for Fattah.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Fattah is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2016 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 Fattah sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 2011 to Dec 30, 2016. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Fattah was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 4838 (113th): To redesignate the railroad station located at 2955 Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, commonly known as “30th Street Station”, as the “William H. Gray III 30th Street …
- H.R. 100 (106th): To establish designations for United States Postal Service buildings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Does 2 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
Fattah sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Education (26%) Health (16%) Science, Technology, Communications (14%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Taxation (12%) Housing and Community Development (9%) Social Welfare (5%) Crime and Law Enforcement (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Fattah recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 3717 (114th): U.S.-Israel Global Neuroscience Partnership Act
- H.Res. 409 (114th): Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to exclude certain organizations …
- H.R. 2736 (114th): Youth Mental Health Research Act
- H.R. 1672 (114th): REDEEM Act
- H.R. 1360 (114th): America’s FOCUS Act of 2015
- H.R. 1359 (114th): American Dream Accounts Act
- H.R. 1071 (114th): Fiscal Fairness Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1995 to Jun 2016, Fattah missed 1,228 of 14,558 roll call votes, which is 8.4%. This is much worse than the median of 2.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jun 2016. 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
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
