DesJarlais is the representative for Tennessee’s 4th congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 5, 2011. DesJarlais is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.
![Photo of Rep. Scott DesJarlais [R-TN4]](/static/legislator-photos/412477-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2020 Report Card for DesJarlais.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
DesJarlais is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives 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 DesJarlais has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Mar 3, 2021. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
DesJarlais sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Armed Forces and National Security (29%) Government Operations and Politics (21%) Health (21%) Animals (14%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (14%)
Recent Bills
Some of DesJarlais’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 83: Protecting Constitutional Rights from Online Platform Censorship Act
- H.R. 84: PROVIDE Act
- H.Res. 1245 (116th): Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding prioritizing the COVID-19 ...
- H.Res. 1238 (116th): Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding prioritizing the COVID-19 ...
- H.R. 6970 (116th): PROVIDE Act
- H.R. 5381 (116th): International Pharmaceutical Transparency Act of 2019
- H.R. 5228 (116th): To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a ...
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2011 to Mar 2021, DesJarlais missed 333 of 6,361 roll call votes, which is 5.2%. This is much worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.
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