Groping Through the Maze of Our Laws
In 1923, New York Times Magazine lamented that "only" 500 or so laws had been enacted by the prior two-year Congress. So far in 2023, it's around 25.
As the 1923 article noted:
The volume of new legislation would be larger if Congress did not so frequently fail in its duty. To the late Congress more than 15,000 bills were submitted — all of them printed, with the debates upon them, at the public expense. Yet of these 15,000 bills, only 500 were passed into law. It is this kind of thing that breaks the heart of the litigious profession.
They had no idea what was coming. As of this writing in mid-December 2023, Congress has enacted 23 bills into law. While that total will likely rise by one or two or three bills by New Year's Eve, thanks to imminent agenda items like a funding package for the FAA, it will still mark the lowest such total since at least 1973.
(1973 being the year that record-keeping of this sort became more complete and reliable; it's possible that 2023 will mark the lowest year for congressional legislation since even long before that.)
Of course, many would say that's actually a good thing. As the expression goes: "That government is best which governs least."
Still, the current situation speaks to a level of unprecedented partisan polarization and legislative dysfunction. After all, split-party control of the House and the Senate existed in 2019-20 (Democratic House / Republican Senate) and 2011-14 (Republican House / Democratic Senate)... but the numbers weren't quite this low.
Groping Through the Maze of Our Laws
Published: Sunday, December 16, 1923