In early December, as members of Congress were wrapping up their work for the year, House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on Fox Business and offered a curious boast about lawmakers’ work over the course of 2025. “We’ve had one of the most productive Congresses in the history of the institution,” the Louisiana Republican said. He said something similar in November, insisting that this is “arguably the most productive [Congress] of all time.”
In a new op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal, Congress’ top Republican repeated the same line.
House Republicans … start by asking the right question: What’s driving the problem?
In one of the most productive first years of any Congress in our lifetimes, we’ve gone to work answering that question. House Republicans passed 441 bills. We voted to codify 70 of President Trump’s America First executive orders, clawed back billions in wasteful spending through rescissions, and repealed 23 harmful Biden-era regulations with the Congressional Review Act.
To be sure, I’m mindful of the fact that there’s often a gap between the GOP leader’s claims and reality. What’s more, Johnson, who has reason to worry about his party’s prospects in the midterm elections, has a vested interest in trying to sell the public on the idea that the Republican-led Congress is succeeding.
But to emphasize Congress’ recent productivity is to point to one of his party’s most obvious failures. The Washington Post summarized late last week:
With fewer than 40 bills signed into law as of Monday, the House and Senate set a modern record for lowest legislative output in the first year of a new presidency, according to data maintained by C-SPAN and Purdue University. […]
The House, meanwhile, set a 21st-century record for fewest votes cast (362) in the first session of a two-year Congress. It held barely half as many votes as in 2017, which was Trump’s first year in office and when Republicans held the majority.
GOP officials began the year feeling great optimism about their legislative prospects. The party controlled the House, the Senate and the White House, giving it a unique opportunity to advance its ambitious regressive agenda.
It hasn’t quite worked out that way. The Republican-led Congress managed to pass a wildly unpopular domestic policy megabill — the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Act — which was filled with health care cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy, but it otherwise spent much of 2025 surrendering its powers to the White House, rather than approving legislation.
The resulting image is one of a stagnant institution, unable and unwilling to govern, filled with members who are retiring and giving up their seats at a record pace. Donald Trump has even gone so far as to claim that he no longer sees Congress as altogether relevant or important. “Congress,” my MS NOW colleague Hayes Brown summarized, “has gotten bad at being Congress.” If Johnson wants to argue that he and his party will produce better results in 2026 than 2025, he’s welcome to try. If he wants to make excuses for Republicans’ failures, I’m all ears. But for the House speaker to keep bragging about how “productive” Congress has been is absurd.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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