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Rep. Charles Dent’s 2015 Report Card

Representative from Pennsylvania's 15th District
Republican
Served Jan 4, 2005 – May 12, 2018

These year-end statistics cover Dent’s record during the 2015 legislative year (Jan 6, 2015-Dec 31, 2015) and compare him to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 9, 2016.

A higher or lower number below doesn’t necessarily make this legislator any better or worse, or more or less effective, than other Members of Congress. We present these statistics for you to understand the quantitative aspects of Dent’s legislative career and make your own judgements based on what activities you think are important.

Keep in mind that there are many important aspects of being a legislator besides what can be measured, such as constituent services and performing oversight of the executive branch, which aren’t reflected here.

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Was most present in votes compared to Pennsylvania Delegation

Dent missed 0.0% of votes (0 of 704 votes) in 2015. View Dent’s Profile »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

The Speaker of the House, per current House rules, is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings” and is never recorded as missing a vote, and may not be included in the comparison with other representatives if not voting. The delegates from the five island territories and the District of Columbia are not eligible to vote in most roll call votes and so may not appear here if not elligible for any vote during the time period of these statistics.
 

Got bipartisan cosponsors on the highest % of bills compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 1 other)

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 67% of Dent’s 12 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2015.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (80th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (93rd percentile); House Republicans (89th percentile); Safe House Seats (94th percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic.
 

Cosponsored the 4th fewest bills compared to Pennsylvania Delegation

Dent cosponsored 123 bills and resolutions introduced by other Members of Congress. Cosponsorship shows a willingness to work with others to advance policy goals. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (17th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (26th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (25th percentile); House Republicans (35th percentile); Safe House Seats (23rd percentile); All Representatives (23rd percentile).

 

Held the 5th most committee positions compared to All Representatives

Dent held a leadership position on 1 committee and 2 subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. For comparison to other Members of Congress, we assigned a score giving five points for each full committee leadership position and one point for each subcommittee leadership position. View Dent’s Profile »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (94th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (98th percentile); House Republicans (98th percentile); Safe House Seats (99th percentile); All Representatives (99th percentile).

 

Got their bills out of committee the 14th least often compared to House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (tied with 14 others)

Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Dent introduced 1 bill in 2015 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration.

Those bills were: H.R. 2029: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (39th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (25th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (45th percentile); House Republicans (31st percentile); Safe House Seats (45th percentile); All Representatives (46th percentile).

 

Joined bipartisan bills the 25th most often compared to House Republicans

In this era of partisanship, it is encouraging to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. Of the 123 bills that Dent cosponsored, 21% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican. View Cosponsored Bills »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (50th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (66th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (50th percentile); House Republicans (90th percentile); Safe House Seats (58th percentile); All Representatives (57th percentile).

Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic.
 

Ranked 27th most politically left compared to House Republicans

Our unique ideology analysis assigns a score to Members of Congress according to their legislative behavior by how similar the pattern of bills and resolutions they cosponsor are to other Members of Congress.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2015 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Dent’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (33rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (45th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (62nd percentile); House Republicans (11th percentile); Safe House Seats (51st percentile); All Representatives (50th percentile).

 

Got influential cosponsors the 27th most often compared to House Republicans (tied with 6 others)

5 of Dent’s bills and resolutions in 2015 had a cosponsor who was a chair or ranking member of a committee that the bill was referred to. Getting support from committee leaders on relevant committees is a crucial step in moving legislation forward.

Those bills were: H.R. 581: National Heritage Area Act of …; H.R. 836: Health Care Safety Net Enhancement …; H.R. 1220: Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer …; H.R. 3072: To remove the authority of …; H.R. 3537: Synthetic Drug Control Act of …

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (78th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (68th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (81st percentile); House Republicans (87th percentile); Safe House Seats (85th percentile); All Representatives (86th percentile).

 

Ranked the 31st top leader compared to All Representatives

Our unique leadership analysis looks at who is cosponsoring whose bills. A higher score shows a greater ability to get cosponsors on bills.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2015 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Dent’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (83rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (89th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (91st percentile); House Republicans (88th percentile); Safe House Seats (93rd percentile); All Representatives (93rd percentile).

 

Got the 48th most cosponsors on their bills compared to All Representatives (tied with 1 other)

Dent’s bills and resolutions had 424 cosponsors in 2015. Securing cosponsors is an important part of getting support for a bill, although having more cosponsors does not always mean a bill will get a vote. View Bills »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (83rd percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (81st percentile); Serving 10+ Years (85th percentile); House Republicans (87th percentile); Safe House Seats (88th percentile); All Representatives (89th percentile).

 

Laws Enacted

Dent introduced 1 bill that became law in 2015. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. View Enacted Bills »

Those bills were: H.R. 2029: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (67th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (70th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (78th percentile); House Republicans (79th percentile); Safe House Seats (82nd percentile); All Representatives (82nd percentile).

A bill or joint resolution is considered enacted if it or an exactly identical bill to it is enacted as law. We only consider bills that the legislator was the primary sponsor of. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, such as through incorporation into larger bills, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively.
 

Bills Introduced

Dent introduced 12 bills and resolutions in 2015. View Bills »

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (44th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (45th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (50th percentile); House Republicans (61st percentile); Safe House Seats (58th percentile); All Representatives (60th percentile).

 

Working with the Senate

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 3 of Dent’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the Senate. Working with a sponsor in the other chamber makes a bill more likely to be passed by both the House and Senate.

Those bills were: H.R. 836: Health Care Safety Net Enhancement …; H.R. 1220: Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer …; H.R. 3072: To remove the authority of …

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (61st percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (62nd percentile); Serving 10+ Years (68th percentile); House Republicans (71st percentile); Safe House Seats (71st percentile); All Representatives (71st percentile).

Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service.
 

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Dent supported any of 28 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Dent 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Compare to all Pennsylvania Delegation (0th percentile); House Cmte. Chairs/RkMembs (0th percentile); Serving 10+ Years (0th percentile); House Republicans (0th percentile); Safe House Seats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile).

Additional Notes

Leadership/Ideology: The leadership and ideology scores are not displayed for Members of Congress who introduced fewer than 10 bills, or, for ideology, for Members of Congress that have a low leadership score, as there is usually not enough data in these cases to compute reliable leadership and ideology statistics.

Missing Bills: We exclude bills from some statistics where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill because the bill’s text was replaced in whole with unrelated provisions (i.e. it became a vehicle for passage of unrelated provisions).

Ranking Members (RkMembs): The chair of a committee is always selected from the political party that holds the most seats in the chamber, called the “majority party”. The “ranking member” (sometimes “RkMembs”) is the title given to the senior-most member of the committee not in the majority party.

Freshmen/Sophomores: Freshmen and sophomores are Members of Congress whose first term (in the same chamber at the end of 2015) was the 114th Congress (freshmen) or 113th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.