Congress passed "only" 80 bills in 2011 making this their least productive year since records began in 1947. I suppose Congress could not go back and count legislation passed in previous years.
Is this a bad thing? Looking back on last year, we still have no budget, Boehner ceded debt ceiling raises to the president in August, twelve (out of 535) Congressional voted to continued unemployment and tax cuts, and their grand finale was the NDAA stripping large portions of the Bill of Rights from the people.
What about the president? Well he has been pretty busy in 2011. He signed 34 new executive orders. My personal favorite is Executive Order 13589:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to further promote efficient spending in the Federal Government, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. My Administration is committed to cutting waste in Federal Government spending and identifying opportunities to promote efficient and effective spending. The Federal Government performs critical functions that support the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades.
As they serve taxpayers, executive departments and agencies (agencies) also must act in a fiscally responsible manner, including by minimizing their costs, in order to perform these mission-critical functions in the most efficient, cost-effective way. As such, I have pursued an aggressive agenda for reducing administrative costs since taking office and, most recently, within my Fiscal Year 2012 Budget. Building on this effort, I direct agency heads to take even more aggressive. More...
There is nothing wrong with gridlock and the founding fathers actually set up the government with this in mind. However, there are expectations of Congress outlined in the Constitution that are not being met and the president's growing power and disregard for the Constitution are cause for concern.
These are issues that should be addressed by the candidates in their debates and by Congressmen who still value their oath of office.
David DeGerolamo
It’s official: Congress ended its least-productive year in modern history after passing 80 bills — fewer than during any other session since year-end records began being kept in 1947.
Furthermore, an analysis by The Washington Times of the scope of such activities as time spent in debate, number of conference reports produced and votes taken on the House and Senate floors found that Congress set a record for legislative futility by accomplishing less in 2011 than any other year in history.
The Senate’s record was weakest by a huge margin, according to the futility index, and the House had its 10th-worst session on record.
Of the bills the 112th Congress did pass, the majority were housekeeping measures, such as naming post office buildings or extending existing laws. Sometimes, it was too difficult for the two chambers to hammer out agreements. More often, the Senate failed to reach agreement within the chamber.
That left much of the machinery of the federal government on autopilot, with the exception of spending, where monumental clashes dominated the legislative session.
“Absent unified party control with a bolstered Senate majority, I think it’s just very hard to get things done, particularly in a period when revenues aren’t growing and the decisions are how to cut, and how to cut in the long term,” said Sarah Binder, who studies Congress as a Brookings Institution scholar and professor at George Washington University. “Congress just isn’t very good at solving long-term problems.”
Comment
Comment by Cam Vallee on January 16, 2012 at 1:51pm Your Congress is working well under the Republicans. Reid is the one playing the game. In the Senate he has been blocking everything since the Republicans took Congress and the game play has been to blame the Republicans. It is time for everyone to start telling the damn truth.
CONGRESS IS WORKING! The Senate has just been collecting money and doing nothing.
Comment by Thomas Angle on January 16, 2012 at 1:46pm He declared himself king but what bothers me more is the congress is letting him.
No, We the People are letting him. We fearfully put our hope in 2012 while he and congress runs a muck and "fundamentally transforms" this country. In the end, We the People are the guardians of liberty and in the end we are to blame.
Comment by Phil on January 16, 2012 at 1:37pm Liberty can't exist with a government that has no fear of the people.
He declared himself king but what bothers me more is the congress is letting him.
Why do we need a congress if they won't stop a tyrant when confronted by one?
Cut them from the budget. We have a king now,congress won't be necessary.
Comment by Roland C. Cartier Jr on January 16, 2012 at 12:04pm I can't wait for the Sea of Tea that shall engulf this administration and it's self appointed King.
Comment by Aubrey Sheats Jr. on January 16, 2012 at 12:00pm Out of those eighty bills, how many DIDN'T have billion dollar price tags? Probably none. It's not the quantity of bills but the QUALITY! We need a flood of de-regulation bills and congress needs to stop the power grab by the executive branch. They have no gumption.
Comment by steve o on January 16, 2012 at 11:41am that should have read "lamenting the fact congress is NOT continuing the over legislative actions---"
Sorry bout that
Comment by steve o on January 16, 2012 at 11:39am Yeah Jeff, in general I agree. And the way the headline read, you'd think they were lamenting the fact congress is continuing the over-legislative actions we've seen for years. But when you couple congressional history with this marxist push, I'm convinced they are very near to completely establishing a dictatorship. To quote Thomas' comment a little earlier
"While We the People sit by waiting on 2012."
Comment by Billy Bowlegs on January 16, 2012 at 11:39am HUYAOTY Award Goes to Congress.
Comment by Debrajoe Smith-Beatty on January 16, 2012 at 11:35am With all of Obama's CZARS in place, he is going to render the congress un-necessary.
The general wisdom is that "doing something is better than doing nothing". However, for the Federal government, I'm all for doing nothing at this point. Things only get worse when they act on one or their "bright ideas". 80 bills may be a sign of progress! Now, let's work on reducing the Executive Order count this fall.
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