113th Congress: Scott Perry, R-Penn. (4th District)

By Amanda Becker, CQ Staff

Scott Perry has established a priority list that puts him in line with other conservatives: a balanced budget amendment, overhauling the tax code and repealing the 2010 health care law.

“The federal government has been allowed to enact freedom-robbing laws and regulations that are not articulated in our Constitution,” Perry says as part of his written platform.

During his three terms in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Perry served on the appropriations, consumer affairs, labor relations, veterans affairs and emergency preparedness, and rules committees — assignments that drew on his experience as a business owner and veteran. He joined Pennsylvania’s Army National Guard after graduating from high school in 1980, and, as a lieutenant colonel, he commanded a unit that deployed to Iraq for a year. In 2011, Perry was promoted to colonel.

In 1993, Perry founded a mechanical contracting firm that provides construction and maintenance services to municipal and privately owned utilities. “As a small businessman, not only have I signed the front of a paycheck, but I’ve also created jobs in my community,” he says.

Perry says that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulatory overhaul all but “makes it impossible for honest, hard-working citizens to obtain a loan to purchase a home” or for their business.

His conservatism extends to social issues: He favors gun ownership and is against abortion.