Your tax dollars NOT at work….
Just 22 bills have been signed into law this year, according to GovTrack. (When the annual defense policy bill, which Congress passed this week, is signed by the president, the total number will be 23. That number can also rise slightly with the Senate’s end-of-year business, including potentially a short-term reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration.)
It’s a stark contrast to last year, when 281 bills were signed into law, according to the Center for Effective Lawmaking, a project by University of Virginia professor Craig Volden and Alan E. Wiseman with Vanderbilt University. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed 485 bills into law.
Before this year, the record low was when 72 bills became law in 2013 — more than three times the number of bills this year.
Congress has not been this unproductive in at least half a century.
Lawmakers’ accomplishments this year include two short-term spending bills to keep the government open, the naming of a Veterans Affairs Clinic in New Mexico and the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps Commemorative Coin Act. The most significant piece of legislation that Congress passed was to lift the debt limit, which also set spending levels for the 2024 fiscal year.
But now — three months into the current fiscal year which is operating on a short-term spending bill (one of the 22 bills) — Congress can’t agree to follow those spending levels after House Republicans immediately rejected them.
The Senate is staying in town at least until Monday as Senate and White House negotiators continue to work on a deal on border policy as part of a $110 billion supplemental funding bill for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the border….