OPINION:
We all appreciate Congress’ tripartite function of budgeting, inquiry and legislation. For the latter, independently funded monitor GovTrack.us provides some numbers worth pondering behind all the bills and resolutions.
For example, across the 26 Congresses GovTrack tabulated starting with the Nixon and Ford, more than 13,000 proposals are processed in a typical two-year term. That’s almost 30 every working day. Even dismissing no-brainer resolutions and doomed-to-fail bills introduced merely for political effect, that’s a lot of complex material to process.
Over those 26 terms, just 5.8% of all proposals passed. Those are daunting odds, even at the record high end of 9% in the 100th Congress under Reagan. Under Biden, just 3% passed.
Surprisingly, considering our current situation, GovTrack doesn’t discuss the potential impact of Republicans controlling the Oval Office, Senate and House. Hit rates for the eight so-called trifecta Congresses since Nixon and Ford hardly vary from the overall 5.8% figure, a disappointment at first glance. The raw counts for legislation proposed and passed, however, are more encouraging. While percentages remain constant between trifecta and non-trifecta Congresses, far more bills are introduced during trifecta terms. Increased traffic has insured that on average, nearly 100 more pieces of legislation are enacted during these Congresses.
With high-priority Republican bills on tap addressing abortion and an underachieving Department of Education, among others, Trump conservatives can reasonably hope for similar success.
TOM GREGG
Niles, Illinois
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