In 2025, The United States Congress passed1,976 pages of new law, increased the national debt by $4 trillion, as well facing the loss of Congressional members.
At the midway point of the 119th Congressional session, 43 House members — 19 Democrats and 24 Republicans — had announced retirements, the highest of any odd year since 2011, according to data collected by C-SPAN.
Nine incumbent senators, four Democrats and five Republicans, are retiring, as well. Concerning efforts and struggles to pass new laws and a budget, using rules that exempt certain bills from the filibuster, Congress passed and President Trump signed the 330-page “reconciliation” bill which included tax breaks adding $500 billion to the deficit; new limits on Medicaid, SNAP, federal student loads, and green energy; and $171 billion for immigration enforcement, making ICE the largest law enforcement agency in the United States.
Also exempt from the filibuster was the “rescissions” bill which slashed most funding for foreign aid, saving about $800 million and potentially causing 1 million deaths world-wide and geopolitical vacuum that China being filled by China ready to fill, and public broadcasting (saving about $100 million).
Those were perhaps the most controversial bills ever enacted, with senators voting yes on the reconciliation bill representing just 44% of the country’s population. For comparison, the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, passed the Senate with the yea votes representing 62% of the country’s population.
Earlier in December, Congress passed the 1,259page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a yearly bill that sets military and related policies. In 2025, the NDAA incorporated 40 other bills on a range of topics, including police first aid kits and reuniting Korean American families with family members in North Korea. It also included a provision intended to force the Secretary of Defense to provide more information on the military strikes on Venezuelan civilian boats.
Using a rarely-used rule to override the Speaker of the House, legislators passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act to force the Trump Administration to release Epstein files. Significant was the Speaker losing control over the floor since setting the floor schedule is his most important job.
Congress also quashed numerous Biden administration regulations, and the Senate confirmed 341 Trump nominees on a fast pace.
Counting the 61 bills in the omnibus, 196 bills were enacted, with fewer bills getting an individual vote and presidential signature because they were bundled with a number of other bills.
The 1,976 pages Trump signed into law is on the low side, which if more than Ronald Reagan at 1,528 and GW Bush at 1,024 did at this point in their terms, and less than George Bush at 2,518, Bill Clinton at 2,705, and Barrack Obama at 3,478, Donald Trump in his first term at 2,236, and Joe Biden at 2,450.
During the past year, there were things Congress didn’t do, such as not being in session during the government shutdown that lasted for 40 days to not negotiate with Democrats to end the shutdown only to come back into session to approve a bill negotiated with Democrats in the Senate.
This was in addition to the scheduled breaks taken by Congress. Congress is in session less than half the year with an average of 147 days for the House of Representatives and 165 days for the Senate.
U.S. Congress has several breaks, most notably a long summer recess (often August), plus shorter breaks for holidays like President’ s Day, Easter/ Passover, Memorial Day, July 4th, Juneteenth, Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, allowing members to return to their home states for “district work periods” to meet constituents and campaign, with schedules varying yearly based on legislative needs and events.
Key congressional breaks include Summer Recess, lasting a month, Winter/Holiday Break, an extended break around late December into early January, Spring breaks around other holidays that last a week or longer, and Fall Recess. In even-numbered years, longer breaks are allowed for campaigning.
Congress did little for government efficiency, allowing Trump to fabricate cuts and fire Inspectors General, the abuse watchdogs at federal agencies. Republicans also hope to downsize Congress’s abuse investigators at the Government Accountability Office.
These cuts would cost taxpayers billions of dollars by allowing waste, fraud, and abuse to go unchecked.
Congress was also silent on Trump’s tariffs, despite the power to tariff being reserved to Congress, the illegal deployment of National Guard troops or the conflicts of interest in the Trump family.
Congress also failed to Lawmakers failed to extend subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans, which is expected to cause steep premium increases for millions of Americans in January 2026.
Also, Congress did not effectively use and define its constitutional war powers, ceding authority to presidents to execute military policy without formal constraint from Capitol Hill, leading to unrestricted attacks on Venezuelan fishing boats, seizure of tankers and now a land attack on the country. Other countries have also been attacked with U.S. missiles and Congress remains silent.
Congress has been ceding power to the president over several decades, a trend accelerated by party polarization, legislative gridlock, and the executive branch’s use of unilateral actions like executive agreements, emergency declarations, and control over agency rulemaking. This shift has been a significant topic of debate, with many lawmakers and legal scholars expressing concern about the erosion of checks and balances.
Over the course of 2025, the Trump administration unilaterally shuttered or drastically weakened federal agencies, implemented widespread tariffs, canceled congressionally approved spending and conducted military operations in the Caribbean.
Despite being a major flashpoint in politics, comprehensive immigration laws have not been updated since 1986, with formal debate on the issue being rare in recent years.
There has been a failure to pass legislation to regulate artificial intelligence or restrict how companies can collect and use American’s personal data.
Congressional members also failed to pass measures that would prohibit insider trading by members of Congress, with many members having violated existing disclosure laws.