{"id":2337659,"date":"2024-09-06T05:58:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T09:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/do-nothing-gop-house-got-a-few-things-done-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-09-06T06:04:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T10:04:07","slug":"do-nothing-gop-house-got-a-few-things-done-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/do-nothing-gop-house-got-a-few-things-done-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Do-nothing\u2019 GOP House got a few things done &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdo-nothing-gop-house-got-a-few-things-done-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2337659&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The passage\u200b discusses the concept of a &#8220;do-nothing\u2062 Congress,&#8221; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/left-blames-trump-americans-for-canadas-freedom-convoy\/\" title=\"Left Blames Trump, Americans for Canada&#039;s &#039;Freedom Convoy&#039;\">term popularized<\/a> by Democratic President Harry Truman in the late 1940s. This term has been wielded by Democratic leaders to criticize Republican-controlled Congresses for their \u2063perceived lack of action\u200d and progress on important issues. House \u2062Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries recently echoed this sentiment, claiming that the current GOP House\u200d has offered no meaningful accomplishments and \u2062has instead been mired \u2062in chaos and dysfunction.<\/p>\n<p>The article highlights past historic political ramifications stemming \u200cfrom such claims, including Truman\u2019s successful use of the label in the 1948 election. \u200dIt examines the difficulties faced by the current House Republicans, including an extended struggle to elect a Speaker, which has hampered legislative productivity. Despite these criticisms, data sourced from GovTrack indicates that the 118th Congress has passed a significant number of bills, although this number and the passage rate are historically low compared to previous Congresses. while &#8220;do-nothing&#8221; critiques have a ring of truth,\u200d they are also subject to varying interpretations and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/7-democrats-who-could-be-impeached-by-their-own-standards\/\" title=\"7 Democrats Who Could Be Impeached By Their Own Standards\">political contexts<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-sacff-txt\">Magazine &#8211; Washington Briefing <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">&lsquo;Do-nothing&rsquo; GOP House got a few things done<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1681707\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/democrats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Democratic<\/a> President <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/harry-truman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Harry Truman\">Harry Truman<\/a> popularized the term &ldquo;do-nothing Congress&rdquo; and rode that taunt to an unexpected victory in 1948.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Truman, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-defector-emails-pipeline-to-obama-admin-seen-as-currency\/\" title=\"Hunter Biden Defector Emails: &#039;Pipeline&#039; to Obama Admin Seen as &#039;Currency&#039;\">vice president<\/a> who rose to commander in chief after President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, didn&rsquo;t simply beat his Republican opponent, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, that year. His party also came roaring back to control <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/congress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Congress<\/a>. Democrats took 75 seats in the House that year and nine Senate seats, regaining majorities in both chambers and ending their sojourn in the political wilderness after Republicans had won joint control of Congress in the 1946 midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p>It has been a popular trope of Democratic presidential candidates and their proxies and partisans ever since to complain about a &ldquo;do-nothing&rdquo; or &ldquo;obstructionist&rdquo; Congress when Republicans are in charge.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;You have a do-nothing Republican Congress that has delivered no meaningful progress for the American people,&rdquo; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) complained on MSNBC in March, when President Joe Biden was still&nbsp;his&nbsp;party&rsquo;s standard-bearer.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Instead, it&rsquo;s been chaos and dysfunction and extremism,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And that compares to the track record of accomplishment under the leadership of President Biden, a historic Congress in the previous two years prior to this Congress&nbsp;starting, where we got things done.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Jeffries&rsquo;s &ldquo;chaos and dysfunction&rdquo; criticism referred to the long struggle by House Republicans to fill the speaker of the House position. It took 15 ballots for former Rep. Kevin McCarthy to become speaker on Jan. 7 of last year, only to be ousted nine months later. It then took House Republicans three weeks and multiple rejected candidates to settle on Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as the new speaker.<\/p>\n<p>Some Republicans and their supporters have turned the &ldquo;do-nothing&rdquo; criticism into a bit of rhetorical judo. For instance, the Border Patrol union, which would go on to endorse former President Donald Trump&rsquo;s 2024 presidential bid, went after Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, for her involvement with border issues as part of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If you were given a job two years ago with the explicit goal of reducing illegal immigration, and then you sit around and do nothing while illegal immigration explodes to levels never seen before, you should be fired and replaced. Period,&rdquo; the union posted.<\/p>\n<p>For &ldquo;do-nothing&rdquo; charges to stick, there usually has to be at least a grain of truth to them. This is complicated in the 118th&nbsp;Congress by the fact that Republicans only controlled one chamber and that by a razor-thin margin.<\/p>\n<p>Before she was her party&rsquo;s nominee for president, Harris was able to cast the most tiebreaking votes of any vice president in U.S. history, 33, in only three years. Her tiebreaking function was what gave her party a working majority in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Contrariwise, the House had a slim GOP majority that whittled down over time. At publication time, there were 220 Republicans, 212 Democrats, and three vacancies due to deaths and a resignation, according to the U.S. House of Representatives Press Gallery.<\/p>\n<p>American parties are coalitions with different factions. When they control one house of a legislature, this typically means parties need more than a bare, shaven majority to pass all but the most uncontroversial legislation to deal with dissenting votes. When there is little to no cushion, it becomes much harder for majority parties to move bills.<\/p>\n<p>Some observers charged that even factoring in the narrow divide, this was an especially unproductive Congress.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Congress just wrapped up its least productive year since the Great Depression, passing just&nbsp;27 bills&nbsp;that were signed into law,&rdquo; the cable website Spectrum News reported at the end of last year. &ldquo;Of those 27, one law created a commemorative coin and two renamed medical centers.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In a &ldquo;legislative report&rdquo; put out around the same time, the Amalgamated Transit Union charged that the House, like <em>Seinfeld<\/em>, had given the public a show about &ldquo;nothing.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The<em> Nation&rsquo;s<\/em> D.C. Bureau Chief Chris Lehmann rang in the new year by charging the House&rsquo;s &ldquo;chief nihilist lawmakers&rdquo; with giving people &ldquo;performative MAGA stunts&rdquo; instead of legislation.<\/p>\n<p>House Republican leaders could get away with that, Lehmann explained, because they &ldquo;hail from safely gerrymandered deep-red districts, where they face no penalty at the polls for their fundamental refusal to do the jobs they were elected to do.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>However, according to the numbers, some of that criticism turned out to be arguably misleading and premature.<\/p>\n<p>The 118th&nbsp;Congress has passed 78 pieces of legislation so far, according to the GovTrack website. That total grows considerably higher, 270, when we consider bills passed &ldquo;via incorporation,&rdquo; or as sections bundled into larger bills.<\/p>\n<p>The number of 270 passed and a passage rate of 2% is historically low, but not crazily so. In fact, according to GovTrack&rsquo;s data, which go back to the 93rd&nbsp;Congress of 1973, the last three Congresses, with over 1,000 incorporated bills per Congress passed, look like ambitious outliers. The number of proposed bills has also ballooned over the last several Congresses to over 17,000, which skews the passage rate.<\/p>\n<p>A typical Congress will see somewhere between 400 and 800 incorporated bills passed in two years. By that standard, 270 is on the low side, but there&rsquo;s still the lame duck to come.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When it came down to it, many pieces of substantial legislation did make it through both the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate this year. These included such big-ticket or controversial items as the transportation authorization bill, FISA reauthorization, legislation to force the sale or domestic closure of TikTok, and funding for proxy wars in Israel and Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>True, there was considerable drama from Republican-led oversight hearings and attempts at impeachment of Biden and various Cabinet officials. But through it all, the wheels of the government kept turning. An allegedly &ldquo;do-nothing&rdquo; House didn&rsquo;t manage to shut the government down for a single day.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jeremy Lott is the author of <\/em>The Warm Bucket Brigade: The Story of the American Vice Presidency<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1681707\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1681707\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>**Magazine &#8211; Washington Briefing: &#8216;Do-Nothing&#8217; GOP House Accomplished Some Tasks**<\/p>\n<p>The phrase &#8220;do-nothing Congress&#8221; was popularized by Democratic President Harry Truman, who leveraged it to secure an unexpected win in 1948. After ascending to the presidency following Franklin D. Roosevelt&#8217;s death in 1945, Truman not only defeated his Republican rival, New York Governor Thomas Dewey, but also led his party to reclaim control of Congress. In that election year, Democrats gained 75 seats in the House and nine in the Senate, regaining majorities in both chambers after losing them to Republicans during the 1946 midterms.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Democratic candidates and their supporters have frequently criticized a &#8220;do-nothing&#8221; or &#8220;obstructionist&#8221; Congress when Republicans are at the helm. For instance, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) expressed frustration on MSNBC this past March about what he termed a &#8220;do-nothing Republican Congress,&#8221; claiming it had failed to deliver meaningful progress for Americans and instead fostered chaos and dysfunction. He contrasted this with what he described as a record of achievement under President Biden&#8217;s leadership during the previous two years.<\/p>\n<p>Jeffries&#8217; remarks about &#8220;chaos and dysfunction&#8221; were aimed at highlighting the difficulties faced by House Republicans in electing a speaker. It took former Rep. Kevin McCarthy 15 votes before he was elected speaker on January 7 last year; however, he was removed just nine months later. Following that upheaval, it took three weeks for House Republicans to select Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as McCarthy&#8217;s successor.<\/p>\n<p>Some Republicans have turned these criticisms around against Democrats; for example, the Border Patrol union criticized Vice President Kamala Harris regarding her handling of border issues under Biden\u2019s administration by stating that if she had been tasked with reducing illegal immigration but did nothing while numbers surged dramatically, she should be replaced.<\/p>\n<p>For accusations of being \u201cdo-nothing\u201d to hold weight, there usually needs to be some truth behind them\u2014a situation complicated by the narrow Republican majority in one chamber during this session of Congress (the 118th). Before becoming her party\u2019s presidential nominee, Harris cast more tiebreaking votes than any vice president before her\u201433\u2014in just three years which helped maintain a working majority for Democrats in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast with Harris\u2019 influence over Senate proceedings is how slimly divided control has affected productivity within a GOP-led House where membership has dwindled over time; currently standing at 220 Republicans versus 212 Democrats with three vacancies due to deaths or resignations.<\/p>\n<p>Political parties often consist of various factions which means achieving consensus can be challenging even when holding a slight majority\u2014especially when dissent exists among members regarding proposed legislation. Critics have noted that despite these challenges this particular Congress has been notably unproductive; reports indicated it concluded its least productive year since the Great Depression having passed only 27 bills signed into law\u2014many trivial such as creating commemorative coins or renaming medical centers.<\/p>\n<p>However recent data suggests some criticism may be misleading: according to GovTrack statistics from this session so far show passage rates higher than initially perceived\u2014with up-to-date counts indicating they\u2019ve passed approximately 78 pieces directly plus another estimated total reaching around270 through incorporation into larger bills\u2014a historically low figure yet not unprecedented given recent trends where thousands are proposed each cycle leading overall passage rates downwards compared against prior sessions\u2019 averages between400-800 incorporated measures typically seen across two-year terms .<\/p>\n<p>Despite ongoing political drama including oversight hearings led by Republican leaders attempting impeachment proceedings against Biden &amp; Cabinet officials alike\u2014the government continued functioning without interruption throughout all these events demonstrating an alleged \u201cdo-nothing\u201d house managed not once shutting down operations entirely . <\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Lott is authoring The Warm Bucket Brigade: The Story Of The American Vice Presidency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2692,"featured_media":2337660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/WB.Congress-091124.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6203,32304,4762,5894,32076],"class_list":["post-2337659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gop","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-legislation","tag-politics","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/WB.Congress-091124.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2337659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2337660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2337659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2337659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2337659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}