Here’s President Obama at a fundraiser Wednesday night for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Houston, Texas: “This has become the least productive Congress in modern history, recent memory. And that’s by objective measures, just basic activity.”

So, is he right? And, if he is, so what?

We’ve written extensively on the productivity debate in this space. So, let’s start with the facts first. And the facts are these: In terms of actual laws or bills passed, the 113th Congress is headed toward historic levels of unproductivity.

Here’s a comparison of how many laws the 113th has passed as compared to previous Congresses:

At the moment, according to the Federal Register, there have only been 23 public laws enacted in the second session of the 113th Congress — a number that virtually ensures that this Congress will pass the fewest number of laws of any in history. (It’s hard to imagine that, in an election year, Congress is going to go on a law-passing spree.)

Don’t like laws passed as a measure of productivity? How about bills passed — although this stat can be slightly misleading since not all bills are created equal with some mattering far more than others. Still, the […]