House Dysfunction By the Numbers: 724 Votes, Only 27 Laws Enacted

Speaker 1: [00:01:59] This has been by far the most unproductive Congress in the past decade. [00:02:17][17.9] Speaker 1: [00:03:51] They passed 27 bills that were signed into law this year after taking 724 votes total. That’s a lot of voting and not a lot of governing [00:04:05][13.9 Speaker 1: [00:09:59] Aside from the from the kind of bare minimum bills of funding the government, which they did on a short term basis, the bills included in this 27 are things like the Duck Stamp Modernization Act, which allows waterfowl hunters to use electronic federal duck stamps instead of physical ones to meet licensing requirements. SFX:Quack And something about a commemorative COIN act for the United States Marine Corps. SFX: Coin ding These were not big landmark pieces of legislation that anyone will remember [00:10:31][32.8 Speaker 1: [00:04:20] There’s a there’s a few factors at play in terms of explaining why they’ve been so unproductive. The first is that we’re in a moment of divided government where Republicans control the House, Democrats control the Senate. [00:04:34][13.8] Speaker 1: [00:04:40] But at the same time, we also have a unique situation where at the House, House Republicans are divided among themselves. They have a very slim majority. They need almost unanimity to pass anything. That unanimity is all but impossible given the dynamics of the conference where the far right lawmakers want to create chaos, want to cut down on spending, want to cut down on government in general, and are interested in passing laws to increase government government’s role at all [00:05:20][39.8] Speaker 1: [00:05:21] Another way to look at this Congress: If you look at political retribution, then it’s been a highly productive year. [00:05:29][7.7] Speaker 1: [00:05:59] Republicans were successful in censuring three Democratic members of Congress for this year. Only two members had been censured in almost four decades. They also expelled George Santos from Congress, and they spent weeks and 19 votes total engaged in races to try and elect their own speaker. That is what this Congress will be remembered for more than anything. It was highly chaotic, highly disruptive, and just indicative of the underlying dysfunction that made it impossible to really do anything. [00:06:42][42.2]