Legislative Decline Boosts Executive Rule

Congress in the 119th has produced only 121 public laws through most of its term — among the smallest totals in 40 years — and Pew’s coding shows a meaningful share of enacted measures are ceremonial rather than substantive. When legislatures pass fewer consequential laws, routine policymaking shifts to agencies and executive actions, raising questions about accountability and the balance of power. — If lawmaking continues to shrink, more policy will be made by executives and regulators, changing how citizens hold government to account and altering the democratic distribution of policy authority.