Less Than 1% Of Bills Introduced This Congress Have Become Laws: Analysis

That only a whopping 0.37% of bills proposed were enacted is another sign of how lawmakers have not made many laws.

There are, to paraphrase the famous “Schoolhouse Rock” animated TV short, a lot of bills and they’re still sittin’ on Capitol Hill.

And unlike the bill in that cartoon, they face tougher odds than ever of actually becoming a law. According to a Washington-based software firm, a meager 0.37% of all the bills introduced in the 118th Congress have made it into law.

The analysis by Quorum, which makes software for lobbying and advocacy groups, said the 46 laws enacted through the end of April, out of 12,354 bills introduced, was the lowest percentage of successful bills going back to at least the 101st Congress, which met in 1990 and 1991.

“You’re welcome, America! The less we do, the better,” said Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the chairman of the rightwing House Freedom Caucus, when asked about the low numbers.

While the proportion of bills that get enacted is only one metric of how productive a Congress is, and critics say a too simplistic one, the new figure is only the latest evidence of lawmakers’ inability to, well, make laws.