Just 38 bills were passed by Congress this year as Trump consolidates power in Washington

Source: The Independent

Thursday 25 December 2025 09:49 EST


When President Harry Truman ran for re-election in 1948, he railed against a “do-nothing” 80th Congress that passed 906 separate bills into law over a two-year period, including the landmark Taft-Hartley union regulation law and the 1947 National Security Act that created the modern U.S. military establishment.

More than 75 years later, Truman would have a much easier time making the same argument against the 119th Congress.

During President Donald Trump’s whirlwind first year back in office, the Republican-led House and Senate has largely sat idle as the 47th president has usurped authorities once considered the exclusive domain of the legislature while doing just over 4 percent of the work done by their historically-maligned predecessors, sending a paltry 38 bills to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

That has left many of Trump’s landmark changes to come from executive orders, as he centralizes government power in the White House and away from Capitol Hill. Most of those laws passed by Congress have been so-called “disapproval” resolutions that rolled back regulations enacted during the previous administration but did not enact new policies.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-congress-bills-2025-influence-b2890447.html