Are the leaders working for us? › Congress
Is Congress working for us?
The same yardstick for the people who write the laws, what they pass, what they block, and who it's for.
The short version
- ✓Congress passes fewer laws than it has in decades, and blocks more than ever.
- ✓The money to influence it hit a record $5 billion; 95 of the top 100 spenders are business.
- ✓When laws do pass, the gains tilt to the top, the 2017 tax law gave the top 1% triple the share the bottom 60% got.
- ✓200+ policies most Americans agree on never even get a vote.
- ✓95% of members trade stocks while writing the rules, with a $200 fine and zero prosecutions.
Congress does less, blocks more, and what passes follows the money, not the votes.
Where Congress stands
Passing less, blocking more: president by president
How much Congress actually passed
Average public laws per 2-year Congress, Reagan to Biden. The bars shrink as you move right.
638
Reagan
620
H.W. Bush
443
Clinton
454
W. Bush
323
Obama
393
Trump I
318
Biden
Output roughly halved across the era. Honest caveat: raw counts understate it, modern bills are bigger and bundled, so one law (like the ACA) now carries what used to be dozens, and the substantive share held steady (~65–80%). The story isn't more fluff, it's fewer, bigger laws and more left undone. Trump II's 119th is still in session.
How often the Senate blocked itself
How often senators had to force a vote just to end debate and move a bill along, called 'cloture,' it's the closest measure we have of the filibuster. The bars grow as the ones above shrink.
42
Reagan
49
H.W. Bush
76
Clinton
85
W. Bush
158
Obama
265
Trump I
301
Biden
Roughly 7× more blocking than the Reagan era, even as the number of laws passed fell by half. Honest caveat: this counts attempts to break a filibuster, not filibusters exactly (some are filed just in case), and Senate rule changes in 2013 and 2017 changed how this works for nominations. The current Congress is still in session.
Who is Congress actually working for?
When a law does pass, who gets it? (2017 tax law, fully phased in)
Top 1% (over ~$838k)+$61,100
Bottom 60% (under ~$92k)+1.0% income
The top 1% gain ~2.9% of after-tax income, about triple the share the bottom 60% get.
Does Congress look like the people it represents?
Typical member of Congress$1M+
Typical U.S. household~$190K
A majority of Congress have been millionaires since 2012; only about 1 in 7 American households are. This shows the gap, not the cause.
35% → 25%
the top 1%'s average federal tax rate, 1979 → today, even as their income share soared
$200
the STOCK Act fine for trading on the job, 95% of members own stock; zero prosecutions
$174K
congressional pay, frozen since 2009, the gap is the wealth members already had, not the salary
The Legislative branch of "Are the leaders working for us?" Nonpartisan sources throughout, tap any to open it.