Rep. Charles Dent
Former Representative for Pennsylvania’s 15th District
pronounced CHAW-rulz // dent
Dent was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 15th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 2005 to 2018.
![Photo of Rep. Charles Dent [R-PA15, 2005-2018]](/static/legislator-photos/400648-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2017 Report Card for Dent.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Dent is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2018 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 Dent sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2013 to Dec 21, 2018. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Dent was the primary sponsor of 7 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 5786 (115th): Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019
- H.R. 2998 (115th): Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018
- H.R. 4974 (114th): Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017
- H.R. 2029 (114th): Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016
- H.R. 6223 (112th): To amend section 1059(e) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 to clarify that a period of employment abroad by the Chief of Mission …
- H.R. 4786 (109th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 535 Wood Street in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as the “H. Gordon Payrow Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 2490 (109th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 442 West Hamilton Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania, as the “Mayor Joseph S. Daddona Memorial Post Office”.
Does 7 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
Dent sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (32%) Crime and Law Enforcement (12%) Armed Forces and National Security (12%) Government Operations and Politics (12%) Immigration (8%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (8%) Energy (8%) International Affairs (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Dent recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5786 (115th): Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019
- H.R. 5505 (115th): Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act
- H.R. 4007 (115th): To revise the quorum requirement for the Board of Directors of the …
- H.R. 2998 (115th): Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018
- H.Res. 282 (115th): Supporting State, local, and community initiatives to encourage parents, teachers, camp counselors, …
- H.R. 1732 (115th): Synthetic Drug Control Act of 2017
- H.R. 1017 (115th): Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act of 2017
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2005 to May 2018, Dent missed 45 of 9,770 roll call votes, which is 0.5%. This is better than the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in May 2018. 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
