Dougherty was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 4th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1979 to 1982.
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Dougherty is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1982 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 Dougherty sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 1977 to Dec 21, 1982. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Dougherty was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- H.J.Res. 614 (97th): A joint resolution to designate the period commencing January 1, 1983, and ending December 31, 1983, as the “Tricentennial Anniversary Year of German Settlement in America”.
- H.J.Res. 417 (97th): A joint resolution to authorize and request the President to issue a proclamation designating October 19 through October 25, 1982, as “Lupus Awareness Week”.
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
Dougherty sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (40%) Education (27%) Armed Forces and National Security (20%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (13%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Dougherty recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 7262 (97th): A bill to require that members of the Armed Forces on active-duty …
- H.J.Res. 614 (97th): A joint resolution to designate the period commencing January 1, 1983, and …
- H.Res. 526 (97th): A resolution concerning the support and recognition of the Baltic governments of …
- H.Res. 513 (97th): A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the …
- H.R. 5862 (97th): A bill to protect unborn human beings.
- H.J.Res. 417 (97th): A joint resolution to authorize and request the President to issue a …
- H.R. 5387 (97th): A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to provide that …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1979 to Dec 1982, Dougherty missed 409 of 2,088 roll call votes, which is 19.6%. This is much worse than the median of 7.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1982. 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
- United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
- Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
