What Does Congress Actually DO?

The answer is … not much! The 118th Congress has been labeled the least productive in decades, as they disregard the important issues yet facing our country. (Photo by Michael O’Keene on Shutterstock)

by Kenneth Lee Warner - Published in Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs Two - Medium

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a political junkie. I can't get through the day without pouring over news sites, listening to podcasts, and scribbling notes for future posts like this one.

This morning though, I had an epiphany while scanning the NYT for the latest debacle in the House of Representatives and found myself asking a very simple question: “Just what does the U.S. Congress actually do?”

Sadly, the answer is, not much.

This year, Republicans and Democrats in Congress will be battling for control of both houses and my inbox is full of pleas for campaign donations from across the country from California to Colorado to New York and back again. They all have something in common. Each contest claims to be the most important in history and the outcome promises to determine the future of the universe.

But upon closer examination, the 118th Congress of the United States has turned out to be the most unproductive in decades. There are 12,185 bills and resolutions before them. They passed and got President Biden’s signature on just 20.

For all of my friends who hate big government, consider your wish as having come true. They’re doing essentially nothing down there in Washington.

It’s not like they don't have important issues to work on:

Protections languish in oblivion for women’s personal and reproductive rights.

Our healthcare system, proven to be a total mess by the pandemic, is broken and among the least progressive of industrialized nations. So bad is it that in the top ten list, the U.S. ranks … eleven behind Great Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, France, and Canada.

Access to public education is tops, but the system has become prone to graduating a generation of dolts as politicans argue about banning books and the prohibition and teaching about evolution.

Climate change due to fossil fuels is devastating our children’s future while the United States remains the largest oil-producing nation in the world. That’s right, number one!

Voting rights for ordinary folks are being decimated and have turned clocks back to the days of poll taxing.

Of course, it would be unfair to say that Congress isn’t doing anything at all. Here are some of the things they did manage to do:

Agree to mint a coin commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps.

They amended the Siletz Reservation Act which clarified the hunting, fishing, trapping, and animal gathering rights of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Certainly important for them, but hardly earth-shattering for the rest of us.

Passed HJR62 which allows the reappointment of Michael Govan as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

They did not, however, manage to pass HR6779 which would end unemployment payments to jobless millionaires despite the noxious sound of the rich who are loudly laughing all the way to the bank.

Infighting among the Republican majority has become legendary. While they managed to kick the can down the road regarding the spending bill that keeps the government operating, they shut down for three weeks anyway as they fought to decide who would be in charge of what seems to be a circular firing squad.

To their credit, they did finally, manage to get rid of George Santos who has become infamous for lying about everything from his 8th-grade spelling grades to his prowess as a sportsman. But they let him occupy his seat for almost a full year as they needed his vote to stop progress on important legislation. (See above.)

All of this inactivity has allowed them to do what they deem as the most important duty of all, getting re-elected and crisis-crossing the country in support of Donald Trump, the most dangerous candidate of them all.

Some pundits accuse Republicans in Congress of “fiddling while Rome burns”, a reference to the Emporer Nero who in 64 AD was nowhere to be seen as a catastrophic fire devastated 70% of the city. But then again, that can’t be true. First, because the fiddle wasn't invented till the 11th century a thousand years later. And second, because Nero himself was 35 miles away at his villa in Antium.

Much like our members of Congress, who are everywhere but in Washington doing their jobs.