Sen. Dean Heller
Former Senator for Nevada
pronounced deen // HEH-ler
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2018 Report Card for Heller.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Heller is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2019 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 legislators sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2013 to Jan 2, 2019. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Heller was the primary sponsor of 16 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 2909 (115th): Assessing Barriers to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Act
- S. 2807 (115th): Department of Veterans Affairs Bonus Transparency Act
- S. 2548 (115th): Veteran Urgent Access to Mental Healthcare Act
- S. 2324 (115th): Small Business Credit Availability Act
- S. 327 (115th): Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2017
- S. 462 (115th): Securities and Exchange Commission Overpayment Credit Act
- S. 114 (115th): VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017
Does 16 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
Heller sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Armed Forces and National Security (26%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (21%) Taxation (16%) Health (11%) Finance and Financial Sector (9%) Science, Technology, Communications (8%) Labor and Employment (4%) Transportation and Public Works (4%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Heller recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 3582 (115th): A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish …
- S. 3597 (115th): Protecting Child Trafficking Victim Witnesses Act
- S. 3580 (115th): Seniors Affordable Housing Tax Credit Act
- S. 3583 (115th): Innovations in Mentoring, Training, and Apprenticeships Act
- S.Res. 643 (115th): A resolution honoring the memory of the victims of the brutal and …
- S. 3397 (115th): Douglas County Economic Development and Conservation Act
- S. 3395 (115th): Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2007 to Dec 2018, Heller missed 88 of 2,178 roll call votes, which is 4.0%. This is much worse than the median of 1.5% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2018. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absences, 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