Congress Had A Banner Year: Lots Of Screaming, Very Few Laws

WASHINGTON — The 118th Congress is shaping up to be the least productive in modern history, passing just over two dozen bills that became law in 2023.

The Republican-controlled House was consumed by rancor and partisan brawls for much of the year, doing little more than passing symbolic resolutions, expelling a member and, for the first time in U.S. history, ousting its own speaker. The House GOP has a slim, nonfunctioning majority, and many of its members appear more interested in performance art than governing.

The Democratic-controlled Senate hasn’t seen as much turbulence (save for a Republican senator nearly getting into a fistfight with a committee witness), but passing legislation has proved equally difficult there. The upper chamber left town Wednesday without approving more aid to Ukraine, as Republicans continue to insist that it be paired with stricter limits on immigration and tougher border policy. Negotiations involving President Joe Biden’s administration have made some progress, but no resolution is expected until Congress returns in January at the earliest.

What once looked like a promising legislative year for Senate Democrats’ 51-49 majority fizzled as high-profile bills stalled amid heavy industry opposition, including ones seeking to improve rail safety, provide cannabis businesses with access to banking, limit the power of Big Tech, lower the cost of insulin, strengthen online safety and privacy for children and teens, and more.

Lawmakers can still take them up in 2024, but things usually get tougher in Washington during an election year.

The only significant thing that Congress did in 2023 was the bare minimum: It averted a debt default and kept the government open. But lawmakers are now staring at the possibility of two government shutdowns in January, a mess they created for themselves, and they aren’t any closer to resolving their disagreements on government funding. Republicans continue to demand sharp limits on spending despite controlling only one chamber of Congress.

“I don’t think the Senate has been nearly as productive as it could have been,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remarked during a press conference this week. “We had a lot of floor time that could have been processing appropriations bills. So yeah, I’m not very happy with how productive the Senate has been this year. Hopefully, it’ll get better soon.”

Asked by a reporter if Congress is functioning well right now, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) replied incredulously, “Are you serious?”

Tester serves on the Senate Banking Committee, which advanced several notable bills this year that have yet to receive a vote on the chamber floor. One would allow banks and credit unions to serve cannabis businesses in states where cannabis is legal, an issue with bipartisan support.

Another bill, the SAFER Banking Act, aims to hold bank executives accountable for bank failures such as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this year. It, too, passed in committee by a wide bipartisan margin.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has vowed to schedule votes on both measures, but disagreements over spending, defense policy, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) futile blockade of hundreds of typically uncontroversial military promotions burned up valuable time in the latter half of the year.

Also stalling this year was the Railway Safety Act, which was introduced following the devastating derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. The bill would enhance safety procedures for trains carrying such materials and create a requirement for railroads to operate freight trains with crews of at least two people.

While it initially had bipartisan momentum in the wake of the crash, the bill derailed due to opposition from railroad companies and the coal industry, which mobilized against it behind the scenes.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), an author of the bill who also chairs the Senate Banking Committee, said the inaction around rail safety and cannabis banking should be blamed on dysfunction in the House and the packed calendar in the Senate.

“What happened is the chaos in the House,” Brown told HuffPost about the stalled legislation.

“We would have done it. We were ready to go. We just couldn’t find floor time to do what we needed to do,” he said, adding, “not just [with] rail, but the same with SAFER Banking.”

In his final speech of 2023 on the Senate floor Wednesday, Schumer acknowledged that the chamber had a difficult year and expressed optimism that it would do better in 2024. But doing so, he noted, would require bipartisan cooperation.

He also framed Democrats’ accomplishments as largely about what they prevented from occurring: a first-ever default on U.S. debt, and a GOP-led repeal of major legislation that they had passed earlier, including the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Republican House majority, Schumer added, is the “most unproductive and dysfunctional in history.” He also urged the GOP to do one thing it seemingly isn’t: ditch former President Donald Trump, who is leading the race for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination by a large margin.

“Donald Trump may not be in office, but his influence drove practically every major decision for House Republicans,” Schumer said. “Unfortunately, the dark cloud of Donald Trump hovers, looms over Senate and House Republicans, and it’s something I hope they will resist because he is no good for the country, no good for their party.”

House Republicans have a new speaker now: Louisiana’s Mike Johnson, who swiftly endorsed Trump for president. Moreover, many in the GOP believe that Congress not making laws is a feature of their majority rather than a bug.

“One of our big accomplishments has been being able to stop [legislation],” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told HuffPost. “We’ve been able to stop a lot of the spending.”

Jonathan Nicholson contributed reporting.