NBC’s Kyle Inskeep notes that this 112th Congress is headed to achieve a dubious distinction: the least productive Congress since 1947 (which first earned the moniker “Do-Nothing” Congress). With just weeks left, this Congress has passed only 196 bills into law (and many of those have been ceremonial pieces of legislation, like the naming of courthouses). The previous low was set by the 104th Congress (1995-96), which passed 333 bills into law. That said, there are plenty of conservatives who would argue that NOT passing bills actually means this was a productive Congress.
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Nov 2012