Dec.21

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

The House Held 724 Votes but Passed Only 27 Laws

The view that many young people have that the government can't do anything does have a solid basis in reality, however. In 2023, the House took 724 votes but passed only 27 laws. That could be viewed as a 3.7% yield and not terribly productive. The problem is that while Republicans have a majority, the Freedom Caucus opposes the rest of their party on almost everything, so there is no functional majority on practically anything. To start with, the first 15 votes were for electing a speaker, back in January. It went downhill from there, including three votes to expel "George Santos."

The current House session has been exceedingly unproductive. By way of contrast, in 2022, the House held 549 votes and passed 248 bills. These included the infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPs Act, a minor gun-safety law, and more. Also, in 2013, when Republicans controlled the House and Democrats controlled the Senate, just as now, the House passed 72 bills that the Senate accepted and which were signed into law by Barack Obama.

Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said: "Democrats as a party are much more interested in having government do things. A lot of what Republicans are motivated by is the pursuit of ideological purity." This doesn't lead to many laws being passed.

In case you are an optimist and more interested in the success than the failures, here are the 27 successful votes and what they did:

• Blocked a rewrite to the D.C. criminal code that reduced some mandatory sentences.
• Ordered the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information about the origins of COVID-19.
• Terminated the COVID-19 emergency.
• Created a federal system for notifying pilots about safety of air travel (NOTAM).
• Headed off defaulting on the federal debt.
• Increased compensation for certain disabled veterans.
• Modified age requirements for students attending a state maritime academy.
• Authorized medical facility projects for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs.
• Required federal rule-making agencies to explain each rule in 100 words of plain English.
• Authorized the coins celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps.
• Gave some land in trust to the Pala Band of Mission Indians in San Diego County.
• Renamed a veterans clinic in Michigan.
• Approved an agreement between American and Taiwan institutes relating to trade.
• Changed the contracting process for organ procurement for transplants.
• Kept the government open a little longer.
• Renamed a veterans clinic in New Mexico.
• Allowed federal education funds to be spent buying weapons used in shooting sports.
• Increased benefits for children of Vietnam veterans born with spina bifida.
• Extended the eligibility of certain VA programs.
• Expanded eligibility for medical and dental care to certain South Korean veterans who served in Vietnam.
• Required the VA to educate veterans about predatory actors trying to cheat them out of benefits.
• Kept the government open until January.
• Directed the Dept. of Commerce to study xylazine, an animal tranquilizer.
• Created a system for replacing paper duck stamps with electronic ones.
• Renewed the FEC's authority to issue penalties for violating election law.
• Authorized the FCC to process permits for use of the 5G spectrum.
• Extended an exemption relating to bankruptcy relief for certain members of the military and National Guard.

Pretty impressive list of laws, no? Your tax dollars at work, as they say. At least the House respects veterans, assuming you count renaming VA facilities as respect for veterans. Maybe young voters may have noticed that the House is totally nonfunctional more clearly than older voters have. Only they are putting the blame in the wrong place. (V)