Congress · Laws

What Laws Does Congress Pass?

Every public law Congress has passed since 1973, by policy area and by how close the vote was. How much Congress passes, on what, and by what margin shows whether it is governing or gridlocked.

How to read this

One bar is one two-year Congress, labelled by the year it opens; the president under it signed most of its laws. A law counts in the Congress that enacted it, signed or not (veto overrides included); private laws are left out. A law’s vote band is the closest final-passage vote it faced in either chamber; laws passed by voice vote or consent in both chambers have no tally and form their own band. “Major laws” are David Mayhew’s lists of important enactments, assessed through the 118th Congress. Select a Congress to pin it on both charts.

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Show which party held the House and Senate under each chart

How many laws does Congress pass?

From 1973 through 2024, Congress enacted the most laws in 1987–88 (713) and the fewest in 2023–24 (274). Commemorations peaked at 40% of laws in 1985–86; without them, the most was 596, in 1973–74.

Data notes

The 93rd Congress (1973–74) enacted 651 laws, the 118th (2023–24) 274. A law’s policy area is the single area Congress.gov assigns its bill, grouped here into 8 colour-coded topics. “Commemorations” is our own grouping, applied the same way in every year: Congress.gov filed it there, or its title designates a day, week or year, names a building or landmark, awards a medal or coin, or approves a memorial. Laws from the 93rd–95th Congresses without a current area were placed by InsideGov from their titles. The 119th Congress is in session, so its bar is partial (hatched) and excluded from the peak and low labels. Sponsor party is the party the bill’s sponsor sat with in that Congress; the 23 laws sponsored by an independent, a minor-party member or no member at all are in “All parties” only.

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Congress	Opened	Laws	Commemorations	Land, water & farming	Government, justice & rights	Economy, taxes & trade	Defense & foreign affairs	Health, education & culture	Transport, housing & emergencies	Energy & environment
119th	2025	120	6	33	17	22	17	7	4	14
118th	2023	274	94	33	48	22	22	28	17	10
117th	2021	362	102	32	71	36	59	34	22	6
116th	2019	344	101	34	55	41	45	44	16	8
115th	2017	442	118	46	77	45	59	51	26	20
114th	2015	329	87	30	62	30	50	30	35	5
113th	2013	296	74	47	44	27	38	34	20	12
112th	2011	283	70	35	61	47	27	14	22	7
111th	2009	383	107	27	67	67	34	44	30	7
110th	2007	460	163	34	81	51	35	62	21	13
109th	2005	482	139	109	46	59	36	51	32	10
108th	2003	498	136	106	56	62	47	56	23	12
107th	2001	377	87	78	54	60	39	30	17	12
106th	1999	580	120	185	88	76	39	37	18	17
105th	1997	394	57	85	80	66	32	33	17	24
104th	1995	333	42	65	68	58	28	30	10	32
103rd	1993	465	135	99	63	66	40	27	22	13
102nd	1991	590	197	111	69	71	59	58	15	10
101st	1989	650	236	106	87	67	43	54	28	29
100th	1987	713	255	157	86	58	42	45	34	36
99th	1985	664	265	98	96	73	36	47	29	20
98th	1983	623	205	132	73	79	36	52	30	16
97th	1981	473	105	103	83	74	40	22	21	25
96th	1979	613	85	115	100	104	62	51	50	46
95th	1977	633	55	121	123	133	52	51	52	46
94th	1975	588	41	101	109	117	68	69	43	40
93rd	1973	651	55	110	114	132	86	63	56	35

How broadly are laws supported?

Most of each Congress’s laws passed by voice vote or consent from 1981 through 2024, peaking at 89% in 1985–86; the one exception was 2021–22, at 48%. Through 2024, laws passed with under 60% yes never reached 6% of a Congress’s laws.

Data notes

All policy areas, 1973–2026: 75% of 12,620 laws were passed by voice vote or consent in both chambers, 16% passed with at least 90% yes and 2% with under 60%. A band is the yes share of votes cast, so a 50–49 vote lands in “under 60%”. “Voice vote or consent” means no roll call on final passage in either chamber (for most of the 1970s, no method stated); that is 80% of laws before 2000, so the early years show what was recorded, not how divided Congress was. Tallies are checked against Voteview; override votes do not set the band.

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Congress	Opened	Laws	Voice vote	90%+	75–90%	60–75%	Under 60%
119th	2025	120	59	21	5	6	29
118th	2023	274	192	62	11	6	3
117th	2021	362	175	128	32	8	19
116th	2019	344	278	42	15	8	1
115th	2017	442	290	110	14	7	21
114th	2015	329	246	65	6	11	1
113th	2013	296	184	87	10	12	3
112th	2011	283	166	84	8	23	2
111th	2009	383	224	104	13	22	20
110th	2007	460	328	98	19	13	2
109th	2005	482	363	86	11	14	8
108th	2003	498	354	115	11	11	7
107th	2001	377	248	105	13	6	5
106th	1999	580	427	121	21	6	5
105th	1997	394	303	63	17	6	5
104th	1995	333	247	51	17	14	4
103rd	1993	465	369	41	19	24	12
102nd	1991	590	507	37	23	15	8
101st	1989	650	574	41	12	14	9
100th	1987	713	602	69	18	19	5
99th	1985	664	593	32	13	20	6
98th	1983	623	539	41	17	17	9
97th	1981	473	390	43	17	11	12
96th	1979	613	487	49	30	27	20
95th	1977	633	453	93	34	31	22
94th	1975	588	398	95	47	31	17
93rd	1973	651	485	96	38	22	10

Which kinds of laws pass, and how?

Commemorations are the largest group, a quarter of all laws; their 1,066 in the 1980s are the most of any group in a decade. Economy, taxes & trade laws had the most close votes: 9% passed with under 60% yes, against 2% of all laws.

By decade, every Congress of data

’70’80’90’00’10’20

0busiest decadeLaws enacted, per decade; “All policy areas” is shaded on its own scale.

Years shown: 1973–2026

Voice vote90%+75–90%60–75%Under 60%

Data notes

The heatmap counts each policy area’s laws by decade: all of them, those passed with under 60% yes, or those passed by voice vote or consent. Each bar beside it splits an area’s laws over the years shown by support band; across all areas, 75% passed by voice vote or consent. The toggle picks the heatmap’s measure and orders both sides; click it again to reverse. Click a policy area in either to filter the charts and the list. Small areas swing by several points on a few laws. Heatmap cells share one colour scale, except “All policy areas”, which has its own; the last decade is partial (the 119th Congress is in session).

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Policy area	Laws	Voice vote	90%+	75–90%	60–75%	Under 60%
All policy areas	12620	9481	1979	491	404	265
Commemorations	3137	2720	400	14	3	0
Land, water & farming	2232	1867	256	57	37	15
Government, justice & rights	1978	1533	308	67	51	19
Economy, taxes & trade	1743	864	353	178	195	153
Defense & foreign affairs	1171	753	256	75	58	29
Health, education & culture	1124	818	219	40	27	20
Transport, housing & emergencies	710	523	115	41	21	10
Energy & environment	525	403	72	19	12	19

Every law

Public laws enacted in 1973–2026, newest first. The list follows the filters above and the charts: pick a policy area, a vote or a Congress to narrow it. Each law shows its closest recorded final-passage vote; a law passed by voice vote or unanimous consent in both chambers shows as a voice vote.

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All policy areas, any vote.

Data notes

The date is when the president signed the law (or the veto was overridden). Laws after the 118th Congress read “Not yet assessed”, not “not major”. The sentence under a law is the first sentence of the Congressional Research Service summary, kept only where it stands alone, so many of the oldest and newest laws have none. Search also looks through the full summary, so a law can match on words that do not appear on its row. The swatch is the closest recorded final-passage vote, with each chamber’s tally beside it. A sponsor links to their page only for members of the current Congress.

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Source: Congress.gov (Library of Congress) for laws, policy areas and sponsors; Voteview (Lewis, Poole, Rosenthal, Boche, Rudkin and Sonnet) as the check on roll-call tallies; David Mayhew, lists of important enactments, for major laws; the Senate Historical Office and the Clerk of the House for party control. Presidents: the White House Historical Association. Data through 2026-10-07.