Northampton Area High School had a special visitor Jan. 17. The man was U.S. Congressman Charles Dent, R-15th.

Hosting the event was NAHS government teacher Ed Seidick. Those who attended were advanced placement and honors government students consisting of mostly juniors and some seniors. The students were very enthusiastic to learn about Dent’s important duty as chairman of the House of Ethics, which involves maintaining standards of the House members and staff. They also participated in a question-and-answer session, asking about who or what got him interested in politics.

“Growing up living during the Cold War really spurred my interest in politics,” Dent said.

He began his studies in foreign service international politics as an undergraduate at Penn State and then went on to study political science.

Dent serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies and on the Subcommittees on State and Foreign Operations and on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.

In his role on the latter subcommittee, Dent deals with a lot with transportation and infrastructure. This will become a particularly important committee because, according to Dent, “Transportation and infrastructure will be involved with a lot of President Trump’s future plans for our country.”

Dent went on to discuss his weekly schedule. For example, he typically has a four-day workweek consisting of either Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday. Each week, Dent must attend a meeting with other members and the speaker to discuss how they will proceed on issues. The speaker, who Dent refers to as the “referee of the meetings,” determines how they will come to a consensus.

Another main duty, and one of Dent’s favorite challenges, is completing the Appropriations Bill.

“What makes the Appropriations Bill exceptionally challenging is that amendments can come flying at you at any time, and you have to decide quickly - which ones you want or like,” Dent said.

Dent has started off the first of 12 bills for the past two years, and this may be the third year now, as he is expected to begin doing his bill in May. A fun fact, according to Dent: His bill, known as the Military Constriction Appropriations Bill, was the first bill to be passed on time since 2009.

Other student questions involved the Affordable Care Act, free community college, polarization, gun control and violence and, of course, how to become a chairman.

During this event, students learned in depth about important controversial situations happening right now - issues that go beyond what textbooks cover. In regards to some of their questions, for example, students learned in one-third of counties in the U.S., there is only one insurance company due to the fact that more and more of them are pulling out and collapsing. Dent explained this is a serious issue that is continuously being discussed in order to meet their goal, which is to allow every American to have access to affordable health care.

In another discussed topic, Dent said, “The biggest problem in regards to free college is that people invest so much money into it but never graduate.”

He believes free college should be based solely on financial needs, so that only those who are truly in need should be granted the privilege.

In answering a student’s question on polarization, Dent said, “The increase in sources today, including cable, social media, the Internet, etc., contribute to polarization a lot because of all of the influence from the media.”

Dent believes this is one aspect that will only continue to get worse over time.

On the topic regarding gun control and violence, Dent said people should have the right to own a firearm to reasonable measures. The main issue he brought attention to was that mental health checks don’t always get conveyed during a background check when selling guns, and that is a major problem.

Students were interested in learning about how Dent became a chairman. Dent said, “In order to be chairman of anything, one must be in the majority party.” As for chairman of a Sub Committee, which relates specifically to Dent, this deals with seniority. Lucky for Dent, six members resigned or retired who were before him, so he got promoted to chairman early on in his career.

To wrap up the event, Dent stated what he considers to be the pros and cons of being a congressman. He loves constantly meeting new people, doing and being a part of exciting things and the fact that he is never bored. As for cons, Dent doesn’t like so much that he must take a lot of time away from family and that his life can feel very controlled at times.

“The pros far outweigh the cons,” said added.