Congress

Congress saw more bills introduced in 2022 than information technology has in 40 years, but few passed

Partisan divide and Senate's focus on confirmations among factors cited

UNITED STATES - AUGUST 15: The U.S. flag waves in front of the U.S. Capitol dome on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
UNITED STATES - Baronial 15: The U.S. flag waves in front of the U.S. Capitol dome on Th, Aug. 15, 2019. (Photo Past Bill Clark/CQ Roll Phone call)

Posted January 22, 2022 at vi:31am

It would stand up to reason that representatives and senators, dissuaded by the gridlock in Congress, would hesitate to innovate legislation. After all, but 105 laws were enacted during 2019, a poor showing by historical standards.

But that's non what happened final twelvemonth. In fact, lawmakers are on a pace to innovate more bills and articulation resolutions than they have since the 1970s, when Congresses routinely saw 20,000 or more introduced.

In 2019, they introduced 8,820 bills and joint resolutions, 23 percent more they did in 2017, the commencement year of the prior Congress.

[ Divided regime will pose an obstacle to lawmaking in 2019 ]

Nigh two in iii of the measures introduced in 2022 were in the Firm, an indication perhaps of a pent-upwardly want among Democrats now in the bulk to put frontwards ideas that the previous GOP majority had bottled up. Outside congressional experts also highlighted the fact that there was a large cadre of freshmen eager to make their marks.

Freshman representatives and senators introduced just under 1,000 bills and joint resolutions, about xi pct of the total. Of form, the 98 freshmen in this Congress (nine senators and 89 representatives) brand up well-nigh one-fifth of the total number of lawmakers.

In 2017, freshmen introduced 434 measures, or nearly 6 pct of the total that yr.

However, the total of 105 laws enacted is among the lowest in this millennium, exceeding simply the 72 new laws of 2013 and 81 of 2011. Given the large number of bills introduced, this Congress is on runway to enact a lower percentage of bills than any in modern times.

Robert Browning, Purdue University professor of communication and political scientific discipline and C-SPAN Athenaeum executive director, noted that divided government and the Senate focusing on confirming judicial and executive branch nominees are ii reasons why and so many bills take been stymied. "You lot don't see the senators doing much," he adds.