89th Congress (1965-1967)

118th Congress Least Productive Since Great Depression 72nd Congress!

The 118th Congress (2023-2025) is fast becoming the least productive since the 72nd Congress (1931-1933) under President Herbert Hoover at the worst times of the Great Depression.

Both the House of Representatives and US Senate are responsible for such poor performance, but clearly, if the House of Representatives is poorly organized and operated, the Senate cannot make up for it.

Both Congresses had one house Democratic, and one Republican, which also caused stalemate and gridlock.

The fact that the House of Representatives Republican majority has just voted an Impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, with zero evidence of such abuse of power, is a sign of how incompetent and hopeless the 118th Congress is, even with a small Democratic majority in the US Senate.

Clearly, the most productive Congresses have been when one party, in all modern times Democrats, has had a vast advantage in the number of seats in both houses of Congress.

So those most productive Congresses were, chronologically:

63rd Congress (1913-1915) under Woodrow Wilson
73rd Congress (1933-1935) under Franklin D. Roosevelt
74th Congress (1935-1937) under Franklin D. Roosevelt
89th Congress (1965-1967) under Lyndon B. Johnson
111th Congress (2009-2011) under Barack Obama

The most productive of all were the 73rd Congress under FDR, and the 89th Congress under LBJ.

The 117th Congress Ends With Major Accomplishments, Despite Small Margins In Both Houses Of Congress!

The 117th Congress, with razor thin margins in the House of Representatives, and a 50-50 division in the US Senate, only the fourth time ever of an even split in the upper body, can be looked back upon as a Congress which accomplished a great deal, considering the situation.

The Democratic Party accomplished a great deal, and was able to conduct a thorough investigation of Donald Trump and the January 6 Insurrection at the US Capitol, with the great help of two courageous Republican House members, Liz Cheney of Wyoming, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

Democracy prevailed, and this Congress did more than any since the 111th Congress (2009-2011) with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House on her first round in the job, and Barack Obama as President.

And it could be said that the 117th Congress actually accomplished more than the 111th Congress, and that the last Congress to have accomplished more was the 89th Congress (1965-1967) under Lyndon B. Johnson.