For the second time in a decade, the GOP holds total sway over Washington, controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House. But as 2025 ends, the majority party has little to show for its meager efforts at legislating. In fact, the data show that Congress is getting worse and worse at its main job: passing laws.
Despite Republican majorities in the House and Senate, only 61 bills passed both chambers this year, according to Congress.gov. Of those, 22 were disapproval resolutions overturning Biden administration rules and regulations. Two others were bills renaming federal buildings: a post office in Oklahoma and a New Jersey outpatient clinic run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Compare those statistics to the first year of the first Trump administration. In 2017, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were the other two points in the Republican leadership trifecta. Those two GOP lawmakers got 97 bills to Trump's desk that year. Fifteen of those bills were resolutions disapproving of Biden administration rules and three named federal buildings. By the end of the 115th Congress about a year later, 344 pieces of legislation had been enacted.
It's hard to imagine things picking up that swiftly over the next 12 months.
This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest column. Read the full column here.
