![]() When Republicans retook the House in 2011, Speaker John A. The result: 60 pro forma days spanning 11 recesses. While Reid granted the House longer recesses, he convened his chamber every fourth day during the last 14 months of the Bush administration. Under the Constitution neither house can adjourn for more than three days without consent of the other. ![]() Traditionally, presidents did not make recess appointments during recesses of fewer than 10 days. Bush from making a recess appointment to the federal bench. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., perfected the pro forma session device in 2007-2008 to block President George W. The hapless victims: House and Senate floor staff. During five recesses last year, banging gavels reverberated in both nearly empty chambers as designated presiding officers convened and adjourned pro forma sessions in a matter of seconds. Careers, Fellowships, and Internships Open/CloseĪ silent spring descended on House and Senate chambers March 25 when Congress left town for its two-week break.Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition.Science and Technology Innovation Program.Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative.The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative.Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.Nuclear Proliferation International History Project.North Korea International Documentation Project.Environmental Change and Security Program.Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy.However, the National Journal argued that much of the work of members of Congress takes place off the floor. At any rate, the current Congress hasn’t repealed any laws either (despite dozens of votes to repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act).Įarlier this month, The New York Times calculated that the House had been in session a total of 942 hours in 2013 (not counting brief pro-forma sessions) - “the fewest hours in a nonelection year since 2005, when detailed information about legislative activity became available.” By contrast, according to the Times, the House was in session 1,200 hours in 2011, 1,350 hours in 2005 and nearly 1,700 hours in 2007. Of course, there are other ways to measure Congress’ job performance. House Speaker John Boehner has said that Congress “should not be judged on how many new laws we create, we ought to be judged on how many laws that we repeal,” though it bears noting that that would require passing a repeal measure, which itself would count as substantive legislation by our definition. Overall, the current Congress has enacted only 65 laws, according to the Library of Congress’ THOMAS website and the White House’s log of signed legislation. However, as of today (and after extending our analysis back to the 104th Congress of 1995-96), the 113th has passed fewer substantive measures than any Congress in two decades - just 55 laws, versus 63 in 2011 (the first year of the 112th Congress, itself one of the least productive in recent history). (We deliberately chose an expansive definition of “substantive,” excluding only purely ceremonial legislation such as post-office renamings and commemorative-coin authorizations.) At that time, we concluded that while the current Congress was “on track to be one of the least productive,” it hadn’t quite made it there yet. We first did this back in September, when we examined how many substantive laws had been enacted by that point in the year and compared the current Congress to the previous seven. Now that the first session of the 113th Congress has passed into history, it seems appropriate to take another look at its productivity, or lack thereof. Updated data on the legislative productivity of the 113th Congress is available here. ![]()
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