How current Congress stacks up

In September 2026, with the midterm elections only two months away, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appealed to voters that the GOP-led Congress gets things done. For example, while speaking at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas on Sept. 10, Johnson claimed (archived) the 119th Congress — which is ongoing as of this writing and scheduled to end on Jan. 3, 2027 — has been "the most productive Congress in 80 years": The media won't tell you this, but this has been one of the most productive congresses in the history of the institution since 1789. In the House, we passed over 900 pieces of legislation, and that includes the Save America Act four times. It's been the most productive Congress in 80 years, and we're not done yet. Social media users who shared the clip (archived, archived) focused on Johnson's "most productive Congress in 80 years" remark. Other videos of him making similar claims were shared on YouTube (archived). Snopes contacted Johnson's staff to ask what metric he used when calling the 119th Congress the most productive in 80 years. We had not received a reply prior to publication but will update this article if we hear back. In the absence of a response, we used multiple potential metrics to compare the productivity of the 119th Congress, which has a Republican-led House and Senate, to that of the 118th Congress (Republican-led House, Democrat-led Senate through caucusing) and the 117th Congress (Democrat-led House and Senate, the latter through caucusing and the vice president's tie-breaking votes). Based on the metrics we used, the 119th Congress was not as productive as either of its two predecessors. Therefore, we've rated this claim false. According to Congress.gov, the House of Representatives has passed or agreed upon 922 pieces of legislation as of Sept. 14, 2026 (though the 119th Congress is not complete until Jan. 3, 2027). During the 118th Congress, the House passed or agreed upon 995 pieces of Legislation. During the 117th Congress, the House passed or agreed upon 1,127. It is possible the 119th Congress could surpass the 118th and 117th Congresses by its end. Even so, it would likely fall short of beating prior Congresses from the past 80 years, as measured by the number of bills passed or agreed upon by the House of Representatives. For example, there were 1,663 such bills in the 93rd Congress, which served between 1973 and 1974. To measure Congress' productivity as a whole, we can compare what each Congress has passed or agreed upon in both the House and Senate, as well as how many laws they were able to pass. A piece of legislation needs to pass in both chambers of Congress and then be signed by the president to become law. Both chambers of the 119th Congress have passed or agreed upon 139 pieces of legislation as of this writing. That's compared to 315 pieces of legislation from the 118th Congress and 397 pieces of legislation from the 117th Congress. The 119th Congress has produced 110 new laws, whereas the 118th Congress made 274 and the 117th made 365. GovTrack, which compiles statistics on legislative action in Congress, also measures total enacted legislation when including bills that ultimately passed by being included in another bill (via incorporation). This might include acts that were ultimately passed as part of an annual budget bill, for example. Even when including such legislation, the 119th Congress has so far enacted 429 pieces of legislation, according to GovTrack, as opposed to 619 pieces of legislation in the 118th Congress and 1,236 in the 117th Congress. GovTrack also compiles a "Total" figure that includes: enacted legislation, enacted legislation (including via incorporation), passed resolutions, bills and resolutions that had a significant vote but weren't passed or enacted, failed legislation, vetoed bills, and bills and resolutions that were introduced or reported but saw no further action. The 119th Congress' total of 18,670 is bigger than the 117th's of 17,817, but is smaller than the 118th's of 19,315 and several of those in the 1970s, that ranged between 22,313 and 26,222. In sum, based on every relevant metric Snopes could find, it is incorrect to call this Congress the most productive in the past 80 years — at least to date.