Congressional Productivity Laws enacted by each Congress in frrst19 months of its two-year term, by type
As of Wednesday the current Congress had enacted 142 laws, the fewest of any Congress in the past two decades over an equivalent timespan. And only 108 of those enactments were substantive pieces of legislation, under our deliberately broad criteria (no post-office renamings, anniversary commemorations or other purely ceremonial laws). That’s two fewer than the previous Congress — itself not generally considered a model of productivity — had managed by this point in 2012. (As The Washington Post recently pointed out, Congress has a long history of dithering and squabbling rather than legislating during the dog days of summer.)
Congressional Productivity  | Laws enacted by each Congress in frrst19  | months of its two-year term, by type  | Ceremonial  | Substantive  | 104th  | 31  | 137  | 1995 1996  | 105th  | 33  | 183  | 1997-1998  | 106th  | 63  | 190  | 1999-2000  | 107th  | 59  | 145  | 2001-2002  | 108th  | 83  | 197  | 2003-2004  | 109th  | 179  | 71  | 2005-2006  | 110th  | 121  | 179  | 2007 2008  | 111th  | 72  | 143  | 2009-2010  | 112th  | 41  | 110  | 2011-2012  | 113th  | 34  | 108  | 2013-2014  | the Note: Figures for the current (113th) Congress are as of  | the 29.  | Source: Library of Congress' THOMAS we bsite  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 