Following his military service, Lent worked as a lawyer in private practice in Lynbrook, New York, beginning in 1957, and served as an Associate Police Justice in East Rockaway from 1959 to 1960. He then worked as Confidential Law Secretary for New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas P. Farley from 1960 to 1962.
As a State Senator, he opposed the integration of the elementary schools in Malverne, which the state's education commissioner ordered in 1963.[2] After the United States Supreme Court upheld the order, Lent introduced an anti-busing bill in the State Senate that was ultimately signed into law but found unconstitutional by a federal court.[3] Lent stated that he opposed the order because the integration could undermine neighborhood schools.[2]
Lent supported efforts to expand the grounds under which women could have legal abortions in New York.[2] He headed both the Joint Committee on Public Health as well as the Senate Health Committee and pushed for a limited expansion of the law in order to reduce the number of illegal abortions taking place. The joint committee recommended expanding the legal grounds to include forcible rape, incest, substantial risk to the physical or mental health of the mother, unmarried mothers under 16 years, “gross abnormalities” of the fetus, and mental incompetence or physical disability of the mother.[4]
Lent entered Congress by defeating an incumbent, the controversial Democratic representative Allard K. Lowenstein, by 9,300 votes in a hotly contested election in a newly drawn, largely Republican district. One of his campaign slogans was the play on words, "Let's vote out Lowenstein for Lent." Long Island's generally liberal Five Towns region had recently been removed from the district, and the far more conservative Massapequa added, during Congressional redistricting by the Republican-controlled State legislature.
The election was viewed nationwide as a referendum on PresidentRichard Nixon's conduct of the Vietnam War. Lent supported Nixon's policy of gradually withdrawing American Forces from Vietnam while turning the fighting over to the South Vietnamese Army.
As a U.S. Representative, Lent was endorsed several times by Long Island's largest newspaper, Newsday, whose editors called Lent a "key player in environmental and energy legislation". He was most active as a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, ultimately becoming the ranking minority member of both committees. He became ranking member of the Energy and Commerce committee after incumbent ranking member, Jim Broyhill, was appointed as a United States Senator in 1986.[5]
Lent worked on drafting and handled floor debate for the Republican minority on some of the most sweeping environmental, energy, telecommunications and transportation legislation enacted during his tenure. These included the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, National Energy Policy Act of 1992, Cable Television Act, Legislation ending the 1992 National Rail Strike, the Superfund Act (CERCLA), Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), Toxic Substances Control Act (TOSCA), the Conrail Privatization Act, and the Insider Trading and Securities Fraud, Enforcement Act.
Lent held Honorary Doctor of Laws Degrees from Hofstra University (1988) and Molloy College (1985) and was the recipient of the Prime Minister's Medal, State of Israel (1977), Distinguished Achievement Medal, Holland Society of New York (1987) and the George Estabrook achievement Award, Hofstra University (1967), along with many other awards.
