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Government and Politics

Congress- ional Scorecard

Just what did Congress do in 1997? While not many bills were passed and signed into law, advocates of governmental restraint say that may be just as well. House members introduced 3,036 bills in the session that began in January and ended last week -- with 59 of them so far having become law. Senators got President Clinton's signature on 19 of the 1,568 bills they introduced over the course of the year. Congress passed about 70 bills in the final days of the session -- including two dozen on the last day. There were 77 proposed amendments to the Constitution submitted in the House and 17 in the Senate -- many of them overlapping on such subjects as a balanced budget, term limits, school prayer and abortion. Thirty-five bills are on the President's desk awaiting his signature, and another three dozen or so have passed Congress but have yet to be delivered to him. Experts say it is typical that not many bills are passed in the first year of a Congress and that more bills are usually passed during the second year. Source: Jim Abrams, "Congress Has Low Legislative Batting Average," USA Today, November 19, 1997.

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