House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) claim that Republicans are leading one of the most productive Congresses in American history is running into some damaging numbers.
Johnson recently ranked the current Congress among the five most successful of all time, touting the hundreds of bills and resolutions passed by the Republican-controlled House.
But Joe Perticone, political reporter at The Bulwark, found that only a tiny fraction of those measures have actually become law.
“According to GovTrack, just one percent of the bills introduced in the House so far have been individually enacted into law — a continuation of the GOP majority’s snail-like pace from the previous Congress,” Perticone wrote Tuesday.
“Mike Johnson wants you to grade the House GOP on a curve,” he added. “The 119th Congress has been anything but productive.”
Johnson's rosy portrayal does not improve much when legislation folded into larger bills is included.
“The success rate for this Congress ticks up to 2 percent if you include legislation that has been enacted through being incorporated into other bills,” Perticone wrote. “That combined success rate is the worst of any Congress going all the way back to the 93rd, which met through 1973 and 1974, the earliest period for which GovTrack makes its data available.”
The Bulwark report also noted that the first session of the current Congress held fewer votes than any other first session this century.
