Matt Walsh says the Republican Congress did "precisely zero." It passed its signature tax and spending law, but few laws overall.
The Republican congress did nothing. Achieved nothing. Took the mandate they were given and did precisely zero with it. Feckless losers who are relieved to no longer be in the majority. The only thing Republicans do with power is bide their time until they can relinquish it.
Walsh is wrong that the Republican Congress did nothing. It passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made the 2017 individual tax rates permanent and added Medicaid work requirements. His real point holds up better. It enacted the second-fewest laws in 40 years at this stage, and much of the agenda ran through executive action instead.
What the post says or clearly implies, checked one by one. How verdicts work
Its 2025 tax and spending law made the 2017 individual tax rates permanent and put $45 billion into immigration detention. A second law added $70 billion for border agencies, and Congress repealed a record 23 federal rules.
The reconciliation law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21) became law on July 4, 20251. Beyond the tax cuts, it added Medicaid work requirements for expansion adults and $45 billion for immigration detention. It also raised the debt limit $5 trillion2. CBO estimates it adds $3.4 trillion to deficits through 20343. A second budget law, signed June 10, 2026, gave DHS, Customs and Border Protection and ICE $70 billion through fiscal 20294.
Other laws include a stablecoin framework, $9 billion in spending cuts, the Epstein files law and a housing package5. Its 23 Congressional Review Act repeals are the most of any Congress6.
Walsh's complaint has a basis. Outside the 2025 law, the president's agenda "has substantially been implemented through executive action," the Washington Examiner reported in March7. Senate leaders resisted forcing a talking filibuster on the SAVE America Act in March, and it hasn't become law8,9. In February, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said "not much is going to get done" before the midterms10.
Pew counted 121 laws by Oct. 14, the second-fewest for any Congress at that point in 40 years. Only the 2023–24 Congress passed fewer. Later signings and the lame-duck session will raise the total.
Pew counted the public laws each Congress since 1987 enacted before Election Day. This one had 121 as of Oct. 14, and 109 were substantive by Pew's "deliberately generous criteria." The 118th had 106. The Congresses of 1987 to 2009 averaged 4405. USAFacts, comparing the first 20 months of every term since 1973, also ranks it second-fewest11.
More laws were signed after Pew's cutoff. The Federal Register's list reaches 136 by Oct. 22, with nothing newer by Election Day9. That's still second-fewest, by our count from Pew's table12. The total will grow. 168 of the 118th's 274 laws became law after the 2024 election5.
A count treats a ceremonial law, such as a building renaming, and the 330-page tax law as one each1. Congress now passes fewer but larger bills, GovTrack notes, so falling counts don't by themselves mean less work13. The slide began decades ago5.
Our sum of Pew's substantive and ceremonial counts for each Congress. Each point is dated to the Congress's election year: 1988 is the 100th Congress (1987-89), 2026 is the 119th, through Oct. 14, 2026.
| Year | All laws | Substantive laws |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 635 | 388 |
| 1990 | 523 | 299 |
| 1992 | 584 | 387 |
| 1994 | 463 | 324 |
| 1996 | 332 | 286 |
| 1998 | 349 | 306 |
| 2000 | 449 | 344 |
| 2002 | 276 | 199 |
| 2004 | 414 | 304 |
| 2006 | 367 | 247 |
| 2008 | 448 | 286 |
| 2010 | 284 | 194 |
| 2012 | 196 | 143 |
| 2014 | 185 | 141 |
| 2016 | 244 | 172 |
| 2018 | 277 | 206 |
| 2020 | 193 | 150 |
| 2022 | 214 | 160 |
| 2024 | 106 | 84 |
| 2026 | 121 | 109 |
Facts can't settle this part, so we don't rule on it.
What does a congressional majority owe the voters who gave it power?
Republicans held the House, Senate and White House for two years. On Nov. 3, Democrats won both chambers14. Critics on the right, like Walsh, say the majority did too little with its power. Critics on the left say the problem was what it did. On forcing a talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, "show me how, in the end, it prevails"8. He says Republicans will resist Democrats' attempts "to unwind everything we've done"14.
Voters gave Republicans full control to make lasting change, and executive orders the next president can erase aren't lasting.
Outside the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the president's agenda "has substantially been implemented through executive action," though the Republican Study Committee said voters "handed Republicans a trifecta and a mandate"7. Executive action is fragile. In February the Supreme Court ruled that the emergency law Trump used doesn't authorize tariffs15. DOGE reported $110 billion in contract, grant and lease savings, some of which GAO found incorrect or unsupported16. Congress wrote about $9 billion of cuts into law17.
The filibuster blocked much of the rest. The SAVE America Act, requiring proof of citizenship to register, had majority support in the Senate and never became law8,9. "The one thing we know with certainty is that it won't pass if we don't try," lead sponsor Sen. Mike Lee said in March8. In August a separate voter-ID bill got 52 votes and failed, short of 6018.
The trouble was what it passed and the checks it didn't use.
The majority's main law adds $3.4 trillion to deficits through 2034, CBO estimates, and its Medicaid changes alone would leave 7.5 million more people uninsured in 20343,19. Enhanced ACA subsidies also expired. KFF estimated premium payments for subsidized enrollees would more than double20. The House passed an extension in January, with 17 Republicans for it and 196 against, and the Senate never took it up21,22,23.
Each chamber voted to end some of his tariff emergencies, but no measure cleared both24,25. The Supreme Court struck the tariffs down in February15. GAO found NIH broke the Impoundment Control Act by withholding grant money Congress had approved26. In AP's voter poll, about 7 in 10 voters said Congress wasn't doing enough to check the president, including about 4 in 10 Republicans27.
Every source was opened and read. Advocacy groups are labeled as such.
Think we got something wrong? Email editor@viewfromthegallery.com with a source. Corrections are made openly and logged on the page.
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