Grading Congress: After 6 Months, How Does the 119th Compare?

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, an ambitious attempt to cut taxes and increase border security, among a great many other herculean tasks, took much of the focus of lawmakers over the last six months. But it passed – remarkably – and is now law. If he gets nothing else out of Congress, President Trump can retire from politics in a few years knowing he pulled off a legislative agenda the likes of which many presidents never achieved.

It's called the big, beautiful bill for a reason – and its passage was truly impressive (not to mention an epic battle). But it wasn’t the only bill passed by the 119th. Other big news items include the Rescissions Act of 2025, which pulled back $9 billion in DOGE cuts; the GENIUS Act, which establishes a framework for stablecoin cryptocurrency to be regulated by the government; and the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which prohibits the nonconsensual online publication of intimate images of people, whether real or deepfake. Then there’s the Laken Riley Act, which requires DHS to detain non-citizens who have been arrested for certain crimes and allows states to sue the federal government for failures related to immigration enforcement.

Other laws took up less airtime but still affect Americans. The Filing Relief for Natural Disasters Act, for instance, allows any state affected by a natural disaster (including DC and the territories) to delay the IRS filing deadline from April to November, granting an automatic 120-day extension to anyone in an affected state.

Congress – Past, Present, and Future

So, the current Congress hasn’t passed a lot of bills yet. Fine – but how does it stack up against other sessions? It's off to a bit of a slow start, perhaps, compared to many of the previous ones. However, those wanting to revive the nickname “do nothing Congress” need not look any further back in time than this group’s immediate predecessor. The 119th Congress has only seen 30 bills signed into law in its first six months, but the 118th had just 27 signed by President Joe Biden in the entire first year.

Democrats controlled the Senate during the 118th Congress, but barely – and only when Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) weren’t standing with Republicans to protect the filibuster. Vice President Kamala Harris exercised her tie-breaking authority heavily for reconciliation bills and the confirmation of presidential nominees.

The GOP, however, maintained between a four-point and ten-point lead in the House throughout the 118th Congress. This gave Republicans a fairly reliable ability to shut down any legislation pushed by the Biden administration or congressional Democrats.

In total, the 118th saw just 274 bills signed into law over the course of two years – a considerably “worse” track record than Truman’s “do nothing Congress,” which actually passed 906 in total. And to use the term worse suggests it’s better when Congress passes more laws – hardly a given.

Consider some of the other laws that stood out through history: the New Deal, the National Firearms Act, the Gun Control Act, Clinton’s federal assault weapons ban, the Affordable Care Act, etc. Generally speaking, the bigger the bill and the longer it’s remembered (i.e., the greater effect it has through the ages), the worse it ends up being for the American people. In an age with more federal laws than even the government can count, one could be forgiven for desiring a true “do nothing Congress.”

So the current batch of lawmakers is far from unproductive, even if things have gotten off to a big but slow start. That’s actually somewhat impressive in itself, given the thin margins: 53-45 Republican majority in the Senate, with two independents who reliably vote with the Democrats, and 219-212 Republican majority in the House. They’re just a quarter of the way through, with plenty of time to bring up that bill count. That said, long nights and weekends and tight votes may well be the new normal for this Congress, especially if Republicans keep pushing for big, beautiful bills.