A California lawmaker leaving office to pursue a gubernatorial bid blasted the Congressional Republicans for one of the least productive sessions of Congress — a record Republicans believe Democrats have an equal hand in creating.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who hopes to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom as California’s top executive, said 2025’s low legislative output came about from a lack of focus and a shortage of bipartisan effort.
“There wasn’t much else being done in this Congress. And so, as we go into the new year, if Republicans want to work with us to bring down costs, reduce what we spend at the grocery store, they’re going to find partners in us,” Swalwell said on The Weekend.
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“Now, I will say I’m responsible for one of those 40 bills that was passed. It was a bipartisan piece of legislation to make it easier for mothers who are breastfeeding to travel through airports and not have their breast milk screened,” Swalwell said, touting a bill he authored.
According to congressional records, the House of Representatives has taken 362 votes in the first session of the 119th Congress. By comparison, under another Republican trifecta in 2015, the House considered 710 measures in the same window.
This year, 61 bills cleared both chambers of Congress to become law. Of those, only thirty-eight were something other than a congressional resolution.
Despite criticisms from Swalwell, Republicans looking at the productivity picture believe the complaints about productivity go both ways.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., accused Democrats on Sunday of creating gridlock on issues like government spending to purposefully prevent Republican productivity.
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“The American public is pawns in the dysfunction. But again, understand Democrats, they want the shutdown,” Johnson said on Sunday Morning Features, referring to the record-breaking 43-day shutdown standoff earlier this year. “They were responsible for it because they don’t want President Trump and Republicans to have success.”
“So, if the American economy is collateral damage, they don’t care because they just want power. They want to return to power in November,” Johnson added.
Although lawmakers have already left Washington, D.C., and won’t return until 2026, Congress has a slew of priorities that remain pressingly on the docket. Among them, the government will need to find a way to pass spending legislation before the end of January or risk another government shutdown.
More urgently still, Congress must also decide whether it will extend enhanced subsidies for Obamacare, which was passed as an emergency response to COVID-19.
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Without some sort of extension, Democrats fear that the vast majority of Obamacare’s 24 million enrollees will experience an overnight jump in premium costs when the subsidies expire at the end of the year.
Last month, a handful of Republicans broke with the majority of their party and voted with Democrats to tee up consideration of a subsidy extension in January. Swalwell believes that vote offers the opportunity for bipartisan cooperation in 2026 absent in 2025.
“The mandate now, the majority of the House of Representatives wants to put these subsidies in place so that Americans can pay less for healthcare. So, it’s now on the speaker, when we reconvene in just a couple of days, whether he will put this up for a vote,” Swalwell said.
“But if not, the midterm message will be this, it costs too much. It costs too in what we pay at the groceries store and figuratively, it costs too much in the fights that we’re losing under this administration.”
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