Congress is considering another early recess. Here’s what the numbers show about how much work lawmakers have actually done.
Congress is back in session – but maybe not for long.
As soon as lawmakers got back from the five-week August recess, House leaders cancelled the last two weeks of September session – meaning members won’t work again until mid-November.
With a $40 trillion national debt, off-and-on conflicts with Iran, and full-blown trade wars with our allies, the optics of Congress taking yet another vacation are not great. It’s led many Americans to wonder:
How much has Congress actually done this year?
Through August 31, 2026, the House held floor votes on just 65 days – the fewest through this point in any comparable midterm election year since 1994, according to No Labels’ analysis. The House spent 383 hours in session, the lowest in our midterm-year comparison going back to 1990. And Congress enacted just 34 public bills into law, also the lowest in the comparison since 1990.
The House Has Voted on Just 65 Days
There are 243 days from January 1 through August 31. If you are a full-time employee with a standard five-day workweek, you probably worked around 165 of them, depending on how generous your holiday and PTO policy is.
But the House held floor votes on 65 of those days, just over a quarter of the time.
That’s low, even by Congress’s standards. Washington always slows down during election years as members spend more time at home campaigning. But No Labels pulled the data going all the way back to 1994; 2026 was the fewest voting days in over three decades:
No Labels
How Much Has Congress Actually Worked in 2026? - No Labels
Congress is considering another early recess. Here’s what the numbers show about how much work lawmakers have actually done. Congress […]wtf has Congress actually done this year aside from allowing Trump to act like the Mango Monarch?
how many times can Eddie Munster send them home every time something uncomfortable like Epstein is up for a vote?
what a bunch of clowns we're paying to accomplish nothing
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Crnr2Crnr ·
