Many vital issues are facing our country today. Most Americans have major concerns about our economy, our national debt, and illegal immigration. At a time of crisis like this, one might think our leaders would be fast at work looking for solutions to our problems. Instead, Congress is now in recess and could possibly only have 12 total days of work ahead of them before the November midterm elections.
What have they done to earn this vacation? Very little, in fact Congress is on track to produce the fewest number of laws ever. Congress has passed just 77 public laws this year, for a total of 142 since the beginning of this session, which began in 2013. This virtually guarantees the current Congress will be the least productive in U.S. history, well behind the famed “do nothing” Congress of 1948, which in fact passed more than 900 bills.
Instead of fixing our broken nation, we see that Congress has devolved into bickering and infighting. This Congress has produced the first government shutdown in almost two decades. The following graphic from the Pew Research Center shows just how bad Congress has been.
The first thing you may notice is that only 108 of the laws that have been passed were substantive bills, meaning that they actually had an effect and weren’t just ceremonial measures. Next you will notice that this has been plaguing us for quite some time, the 112th and 113th sessions were both incredibly ineffective as we continue to see fights over the debt ceiling and spending cuts, but no real bills produced.
Who is to blame? Both sides are in reality, as neither side has been willing to bend on their issues. Since both parties control one house we can see this clearly. The Senate has failed to vote on nearly 350 bills that were passed in the House. The House has far fewer that have been passed in the Senate. Under Harry Reid's watch the Senate has been the least effective in decades.
