A Fast Start on Capitol Hill
The first 100 days of the 119th United States Congress have been a whirlwind of legislative activity. With Republicans holding a slim majority in both the House and Senate — and President Donald Trump back in the White House — the new Congress hit the ground running in early 2025.
We used the legislative tracking features of Quorum Federal and Copilot to analyze the first 100 days (January 1 to April 13) of the 119th Congress. Here’s what we found.
In just over three months, lawmakers have introduced 5,402 bills and resolutions. The House introduced more than 3,341 bills and resolutions, of which about 93 passed the House floor. The Senate saw 2,061 measures introduced, with 11 clearing the Senate floor.
So far, 133 pieces of legislation have been enacted, including 131 resolutions and two bills. Two additional bills are awaiting the President’s signature.
Comparatively, the 118th Congress introduced 4,796 bills (11% fewer) and resolutions and enacted just 105 (22% fewer) during their first 100 days.
But what exactly has Congress accomplished so far? And how much bipartisan buy-in have they garnered? Let’s break down the key legislation and political patterns emerging in Congress’s opening act.
Key Bills and Resolutions in the 119th Congress
Two high-profile bills have defined the 119th Congress thus far. Topping the list is the Laken Riley Act. Passed with a bipartisan House majority (263–156) and swiftly through the Senate, the bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain certain non-U.S. nationals who are arrested for serious crimes like burglary, to prevent them from being released before trial.
President Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law on January 29, 2025, marking the new administration’s first legislative victory. The fact that over 40 House Democrats joined Republicans to approve this bill underscores a rare early instance of bipartisan agreement on an otherwise tough immigration policy.
On the must-do front, Congress passed the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2025 to extend federal funding through September 30, 2025. This prevented any immediate shutdown drama in the new Congress.
Of course, not every priority of the House’s Republican majority sailed through the Senate. In February, the House approved the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act (H.R. 28) — a bill to bar transgender women and girls from competing in female sports categories. That measure passed the House on mostly party lines, but hit a dead end in the Senate, where it failed to garner the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster. The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act (H.R. 23) suffered a similar fate, squeezing through the House but ultimately failing in the Senate. These partisan bills highlighted early divisions: while the GOP House pushed conservative legislation, the Senate often proved a moderating gatekeeper.
Rounding out the early flurry was an aggressive use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn regulations from the final months of the Biden administration. Republicans in Congress successfully passed at least two CRA joint resolutions — one blocking an Environmental Protection Agency rule on methane emissions fees, and another voiding a new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management rule. President Trump swiftly signed these rollbacks. Such CRA resolutions require only simple majorities, making them an appealing tool for the GOP to swiftly erase what they viewed as onerous last-minute “lame duck” regulations.
Comparing Productivity to Recent Congresses
How does this 119th Congress stack up against its predecessors in their first 100 days? In many ways, it’s been more productive than the last Congress but perhaps not as historically momentous as some earlier sessions under unified party control. Let’s look at the 118th, 117th, and 116th Congresses for context:
119th vs 118th Congress
The previous session began under divided government (House GOP, Senate & Presidency Dem) and was characterized by near-paralysis. In fact, the 118th was widely considered one of the least productive in recent history.
Its first 100 days got off to a rocky start: the House needed 15 rounds of voting to even elect a Speaker in January 2023, signaling the challenges ahead. Ultimately, only a handful of measures became law in that period, all of them bipartisan necessities or consensus items. One notable achievement was the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, which unanimously cleared both chambers. This law directed declassification of intelligence on the pandemic’s origins — a rare point of agreement.
Congress also sent President Biden a resolution to end the national COVID emergency ahead of schedule, which he signed in early April 2023. And in a surprising bipartisan rebuke of local policy, the 118th Congress disapproved Washington D.C.’s revised criminal code, effectively blocking it — an action supported by both parties and signed by Biden.
In short, the 119th Congress’s first 100 days have already been far more productive than the 118th’s, simply by virtue of passing several substantive bills.
119th vs 117th Congress
In contrast to the 118th Congress, the 117th Congress began with a Democratic trifecta and faced a national crisis: COVID-19. This led to an incredibly active first 100 days in terms of major legislation. The headlining item was the American Rescue Plan (ARP), a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package that Democrats muscled through in March 2021. ARP was passed without a single Republican vote in either chamber.
By the numbers, the 117th Congress’s early law count was modest, but in terms of impact, the ARP made the 117th’s start one of the most significant in decades.
The first 100 days are often called a “benchmark” — and if that’s the case, the benchmark set by the 119th Congress points to an assertive, if occasionally contentious, two years ahead.
In raw numbers, this Congress is introducing bills at a faster clip, powered by unified party control and a clear conservative agenda. We’ve seen a mix of bipartisan problem-solving (on immigration enforcement, keeping government funded) and partisan clashes (over social policy and regulatory rollbacks).
Compared to recent Congresses, the 119th hasn’t been the most transformative (2021 still holds that title with its giant COVID rescue plan), but it has been notably productive in carving out legislative wins where possible and avoiding self-inflicted crises.
The real question is whether the spirit of productivity will continue or hit a mid-session slump. History suggests that the easy wins come early, and the grind gets harder as the year goes on. For now, though, Washington has given us an informative glimpse into its priorities: a Congress eager to prove its effectiveness after a historically unproductive predecessor, and a presidency unafraid to act with or without Congress to fulfill its promises.