Watt was the representative for North Carolina’s 12th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1993 to 2014.
![Photo of Rep. Melvin “Mel” Watt [D-NC12, 1993-2014]](/static/legislator-photos/400424-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2013 Report Card for Watt.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Watt is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2014 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 Watt sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2009 to Dec 11, 2014. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Watt was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 6162 (111th): Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act of 2010
- H.R. 6701 (110th): Civil Rights Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008
- H.R. 1505 (108th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2127 Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the “Jim Richardson Post Office”.
Does 3 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
Watt sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Foreign Trade and International Finance (100%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Watt recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 3219 (113th): Free Market Royalty Act
- H.R. 1046 (113th): To suspend temporarily the duty on Disperse Orange 29.
- H.R. 1052 (113th): To extend the temporary suspension of duty on Disperse Red 167:1.
- H.R. 1058 (113th): To suspend temporarily the duty on Acid Black 194.
- H.R. 1055 (113th): To suspend temporarily the duty on Disperse Violet 57.
- H.R. 1051 (113th): To suspend temporarily the duty on Disperse Red 92.
- H.R. 1053 (113th): To suspend temporarily the duty on Disperse Red 177.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1993 to Dec 2013, Watt missed 279 of 14,072 roll call votes, which is 2.0%. This is on par with the median of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2013. 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
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
