PRINCETON, NJ — A new record-low 11% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, the lowest single rating in Gallup’s history of asking this question since 1974. This earns Congress a 17% yearly average for 2011, the lowest annual congressional approval rating in Gallup history.

The record-low 11% rating is based on a Gallup survey conducted Dec. 15-18, and comes at a time when Congress is wrangling once again at the last minute over extensions of a payroll tax holiday, unemployment benefits, and higher pay for Medicare doctors.

This discord in Washington caps off a year in which Congress fought bitterly before reaching a last-minute agreement to lift the debt ceiling, instructing a bipartisan supercommittee to cut more than $1 trillion from federal spending by the end of November. That objective was not reached, and the supercommittee ultimately announced that it could not reach an agreement, and disbanded.

The previous low Gallup reading for congressional job approval was 13%, recorded in August, October, and November of this year, and in December 2010. The highest approval rating for Congress is 84% in October 2001, a month after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

The current 86% disapproval rating for […]