Congress May Be Better at Producing Conflict Than Laws

Only 27 bills passed during 2023, a record low according to Reuters.

Congress did not look inactive. Members held hearings, issued statements, attacked one another and posted clips explaining why somebody else had made progress impossible.

The legislative machinery stalled.

The political-content factory ran beautifully.

That distinction matters. “Do nothing” may no longer describe simple incompetence. Failure now produces attention, campaign material, fundraising messages and partisan loyalty. An unresolved issue can be used again. A settlement cannot.

The issue changes. The operating cycle does not.

A deadline approaches. Negotiations disappear behind closed doors. Public rhetoric hardens. An unacceptable provision emerges. Leadership restricts amendments or prevents a clean vote. Crisis coverage peaks. Then Congress produces a temporary measure or an enormous package at the last moment.

The immediate disaster is delayed. The underlying dispute survives.

In September 2026, a Fortune commentary described congressional dysfunction as a cross-party condition. Its authors wrote that Congress had failed to enact every annual appropriations measure on time for 30 consecutive years. Since World War II, they said, the process had been completed on schedule only four times.

That cannot be explained by one party or one unusually difficult session.

A joint conspiracy is not required when the incentive system keeps rewarding the same behavior. The parties can sincerely disagree while benefiting from the same unresolved outcome.

Most bills do not die in dramatic votes. Leadership controls calendars, committee referrals, amendment rules and conference negotiations. A proposal can attract bipartisan cosponsors and remain inert because the people controlling floor access do not want members placed on the record.

No vote means less accountability.

“The votes aren’t there” sounds definitive. It can also conceal the absence of a vote that would reveal whether the claim was true.

Giant must-pass bills make responsibility even harder to locate. Reuters reported that more policy has been packed into enormous legislation because individual measures cannot move independently. A member can support the package while condemning one section. Another can oppose it while praising several provisions.

Everybody gets an explanation.

Everybody gets a speech.

Gridlock also sends power elsewhere. Presidents, agencies and courts fill the vacuum. Congress delegates difficult choices, avoids recorded votes and later attacks the institution exercising that authority.

Congress loses practical power. Individual members keep their talking points.

A December 2025 USA Today opinion column argued that social media changed the definition of political productivity. Members no longer need legislative accomplishments to receive continuous publicity. They can attack, react and demonstrate loyalty directly to an audience.

Compromise is complicated. It gives the other party partial credit. Worse, it may resolve the issue generating attention.

The failed bill is cleaner content.

Harry Truman made the “Do-Nothing Congress” label famous in 1948, even though that Congress passed hundreds of public laws. Today, Congress can produce fewer laws while generating vastly more political material around its inability to act.

That raises the uncomfortable possibility.

Legislative inactivity may no longer be merely a failure of the political media system. It may be one of its products.

A settlement ends an episode.

A stalemate becomes a series.

The full piece is at michaelvanacore.com.