Congress has enacted 134 laws with five weeks left in its session, a records review shows

By Nora Pembrook

WASHINGTON — The 119th Congress has sent 134 bills and joint resolutions to President Donald Trump that became public law, according to records maintained by the Library of Congress, as lawmakers prepare to return Nov. 9 for the final five weeks of the session.

That is more than the 106 laws the previous Congress had enacted at the same point in 2024, and fewer than the 271, 182 and 213 enacted by this date by the three Congresses before that, an Inquisitor review of congress.gov public law records found. The tally runs through Oct. 20, when Trump signed the most recent 10 laws, including the License to Drill Act.

The count does not capture size. The 119th Congress’s laws include the reconciliation measure Trump signed on July 4, 2025, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; the GENIUS Act on stablecoins; a 2025 rescissions package; the fiscal 2026 defense authorization; and several 2026 spending laws. It has also passed far fewer of the ceremonial measures that typically pad a Congress’s total: just one law naming a post office, compared with 64 to 83 in each of the four previous Congresses.

The House has held 314 recorded votes this year, the last on Sept. 16, according to House Clerk records. By the same date in 2024 it had held 455.

Offices for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were asked to comment on the figures.

Laws enacted, Congress by Congress

The Library of Congress assigns each enacted measure a public law number in sequence. The Inquisitor downloaded every public law record for the 115th through 119th Congresses through the congress.gov API and grouped them by the date each became law.

The 118th Congress, which opened with a 15-ballot fight for the speakership, enacted 34 laws in 2023, the fewest in a first year in the period reviewed. It then enacted 168 more in the final 10 weeks of 2024 and the first days of 2025, the kind of year-end surge that has been typical. Each of the four previous Congresses enacted between 149 and 171 laws after Oct. 26 of its second year.

If the 119th Congress follows that pattern, its final total would fall within the range of recent Congresses. If it enacts fewer than 140 more, it would finish with the fewest of the five reviewed.

What kind of laws

Joint resolutions make up a larger share of the 119th Congress’s output than in any of the four before it, largely because of the Congressional Review Act. That 1996 law lets Congress overturn recently finalized federal regulations by joint resolution, with a simple majority in the Senate. At least 21 of the 134 laws are such resolutions, judging by their titles — including two Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules overturned in May 2025. The 115th Congress, during Trump’s first term, enacted 16, according to the Congressional Research Service. Joint resolutions account for 19% of the 119th Congress’s laws, compared with 6% in the 115th.

The 119th Congress has also enacted two private laws, which apply to named individuals rather than the public, according to congress.gov.

Sponsors have filed 19,775 bills and resolutions this Congress, counting simple and concurrent resolutions that never go to the president, according to the API. Fewer than 1% of those measures have become law.

When the laws were signed

Enactments have come in bursts tied to spending deadlines and congressional recesses. No law was enacted in October 2025, during the lapse in appropriations that ended with the continuing resolution Trump signed on Nov. 12, 2025. December 2025 produced 26 laws, the most of any month, including the defense authorization. Thirty-two laws were enacted from Sept. 1 through Oct. 20 of this year.

The major laws

Most of the laws are narrow: land conveyances, tribal water settlements, veterans’ benefits, commemorations and program reauthorizations. A smaller group accounts for most of the fiscal and policy impact.

Supporters of the Republican majority point to that list. The reconciliation law, the stablecoin framework, the Laken Riley Act on immigration detention and the rescissions package were central parts of Trump’s agenda, and Republicans enacted them with narrow majorities in both chambers.

The House floor in 2026

The House has taken fewer recorded votes this year than in 2024. The difference is concentrated in late spring and summer: the House held 103 roll calls in June 2024, compared with 42 in June 2026.

Fewer roll calls do not by themselves mean less legislating. Much of the House’s work moves by voice vote or under suspension of the rules, and a large share of recorded votes in any year are procedural or on amendments. Of the 314 votes this year, 83 failed, including six measures that fell short of the two-thirds majority needed under suspension of the rules.

The House has not held a recorded vote since roll call 314 on Sept. 16, when it passed the Retire through Ownership Act, which Trump signed Oct. 15. It is scheduled to resume votes Nov. 9, according to the House Press Gallery.

What is left

The lame-duck agenda, which the Inquisitor detailed Monday, includes full-year fiscal 2027 spending before the current continuing resolution runs out Dec. 11, renewal of the lapsed Section 702 surveillance authority, the fiscal 2027 defense authorization and a possible permitting bill. Each of those would add to the count.

How we did this

The Inquisitor retrieved every public law record for the 115th through 119th Congresses from the congress.gov API on Oct. 26 and grouped them by enactment date. For most records, the date of the latest action is the date the measure became law. Where a later action, such as a committee report, appears after enactment, the Inquisitor checked the bill’s action history; for the 119th Congress, that changed one law, P.L. 119-68, from February 2026 to Dec. 29, 2025. Counts for earlier Congresses may differ from official tallies by a handful of laws for the same reason. Congressional Review Act resolutions and post office namings were identified by title, so those figures are minimums. House vote counts come from congress.gov’s House roll call vote data, checked against the House Clerk’s record of roll call 314.