Congress has enacted just 121 laws since convening in January 2025, a pace that ranks as the second-fewest of any Congress in the past four decades, and lawmakers have now left Washington for the midterm elections with roughly 700 House-passed bills still stuck in the Senate. Fewer than 1% of the bills introduced this term have made it all the way to enactment, and the chamber has gone on recess until Nov. 9, punting a long list of unfinished business into a lame-duck session that history suggests could carry more weight than anything that came before it.
The numbers paint a stark picture of a Congress that has struggled to move legislation even by recent standards. According to Pew Research Center, 109 of those 121 laws qualify as substantive, also the second-lowest total of the past 40 years, and preelection output this term has run at roughly half the pace Congress averaged between 1987 and 2009. By September, the chamber had introduced 16,600 bills, according to USAFacts, with only about 13% of them clearing committee at all.
Measuring congressional output is not an exact science, and different trackers land on different totals depending on methodology. USAFacts counted 117 laws passed as of September, while Pew's Oct. 15 count put the figure at 121 — a reminder that these figures track laws, substantive laws, and broader categories of passed legislation differently rather than describing the same thing twice. By comparison, Snopes found the 118th Congress had produced 274 new laws and the 117th had produced 365 by the same kind of accounting, concluding that the current Congress trails both of its immediate predecessors.
A Lame-Duck Session Looms Large
History suggests the real legislative action may still be ahead. Per Pew Research Center, 61% of the 118th Congress's enacted measures did not become law until the post-election lame-duck period, and with roughly 700 House-passed measures reportedly trapped in the Senate — as Courthouse News reports — this term's final stretch could determine whether the 119th Congress closes out its term with a late surge or simply runs out the clock. That outlet also noted that the 118th Congress passed 995 pieces of legislation and the 117th passed 1,127, while the 93rd Congress under President Nixon topped 1,600 — context that underscores just how far legislative output has fallen since the 1970s.
Not everything stalled. Lawmakers did push through a law ordering the executive branch to disclose its investigative files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which became law over Trump's opposition, according to the Los Angeles Times. Congress also enacted a housing reform package — described by Pew Research Center as a mix of regulatory changes and financial incentives aimed at expanding housing supply — that similarly became law over the president's objections and targeted corporate purchases of single-family homes, per the Times' reporting.
What Stalled, and Why It Matters to Voters
Other priorities went nowhere. The Senate failed to advance the Ratepayer Protection Act in a Sept. 30 procedural vote that fell short 57-43 of the 60 votes needed, while a separate proposal to restrict stock trading by members of Congress failed 53-47, as reported by The National Desk. Senate Republicans have continued to block legislation targeting insider trading by members of Congress more broadly, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Scholars who study legislative performance have not been gentle in their assessments. Political scientist Norman Ornstein called the 119th Congress “an abysmal failure, perhaps the worst he had seen in well over five decades,” per the Times, pointing to measures including the quantity and quality of legislation, oversight, investigations, defense of congressional powers, and ethical standards. MIT political scientist Charles Stewart III offered a similarly blunt verdict, saying the current Congress “will go down in history as one of the most ineffective in history,” adding that it may not be the single most ineffective but is certainly among them.
Stewart also argued that Congress is not pushing back against the administration or innovating in policy, and that members seem uninterested in constituent service — a dynamic he said may affect how voters respond at the ballot box. The Times reports that Congress has conducted less oversight than any predecessor in modern history, according to legislative scholars, and that lawmakers have not investigated the enrichment of Trump, his family, allies and aides. Those dynamics are landing with voters: government corruption has become voters' top concern this year, surpassing the economy, according to a recent Fox News poll cited in the Times' reporting, while Congress's approval rating sits at just 10% of Americans per a Gallup poll.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act Looms Over Campaign Trails
Much of the political damage traces back to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut taxes for businesses and billionaires while adding trillions to the national debt, according to the Times. The law also cut billions of dollars from food stamps and more than a trillion dollars from health programs and Medicaid, yet a summer Politico poll found only 8% of Americans believe the law improved their own bottom line. The Times reports the bill has become a major liability for unified Republican control heading into the midterms, which are widely viewed as a referendum on President Trump, his team and his party, with most voters telling pollsters they are seeking a check on Trump's power.
Trump himself has sought to counter that narrative by vowing that a Republican Congress would pass a $5,000 dividend for every American if Republicans remained in power, per the Times' account. House Speaker Mike Johnson has leaned on a different set of talking points, highlighting declining prescription drug prices, bipartisan housing reform, and what he called the elimination of wasteful spending on federal programs. Johnson has also argued that only so much can be accomplished with a razor-thin House majority, even as critics say his deference to Trump has ceded congressional authority to the executive branch.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is slated to become House speaker if Democrats win control of the chamber, has branded the session a “do-nothing” Congress, according to the Times. That framing has shown up directly in Senate races: in Ohio, Sherrod Brown has attacked Jon Husted over procedural attempts to end debate on Epstein files legislation, while in Alaska, Mary Peltola has accused Dan Sullivan of doing nothing to stop Trump's tariff policies or the war with Iran. In Kansas, Adam Hamilton has targeted Roger Marshall over his vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, arguing it jeopardized rural hospital funding.
Closing Arguments on the Trail
With the clock running out before Election Day, Republican leadership made a final push in the Upper Midwest. Johnson campaigned alongside Rep. Derrick Van Orden in Platteville, Wisconsin, on Oct. 29, urging Republicans to mobilize, according to WISN. In South Carolina, Darline Graham was running about even in polls against Annie Andrews in that state's Senate race.
Whatever happens at the ballot box, the legislative scoreboard Congress leaves behind is already historic for its scarcity. Whether the lame-duck session that follows the election produces the kind of late burst of bipartisan dealmaking seen in past terms, or simply confirms the 119th Congress's place near the bottom of the past 40 years, will likely shape how voters judge whichever party ends up in charge next.
