Congress has long struggled to pass spending bills on time
Congress has passed all its required appropriations measures on time only four times in nearly five decades.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Congress
The changing face of Congress in 7 charts
The 119th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in history, and it includes the nation’s first openly transgender legislator at the federal level.
Faith on the Hill
Christians will make up 87% of voting members in the Senate and House of Representatives, combined, in the 2025-27 congressional session.
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Congress
Publications
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Senate Legislative Process A Mystery To Many
Overview The public has consistently expressed strong interest in the health care debate, but relatively few Americans can correctly answer two key questions related to the Senate’s consideration of health care legislation. In the latest installment of the Pew Research Center’s News IQ Quiz, just 32% know that the Senate passed its version of the […]
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About the Survey
Aug. 20-27 Survey Results for this survey are based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International among a nationwide sample of 2,003 adults, 18 years of age or older, from August 20-27, 2009 (1,502 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 501 were interviewed on a cell phone, […]
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Congressional Favorability at 24-Year Low
Overview Americans are extremely displeased with Congress, and there are already some signs that this could take a toll on the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. Currently, 37% express a favorable opinion of Congress, while 52% hold an unfavorable view. Positive opinions of Congress have declined by 13 points since April and are now […]
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Breaking Barriers: Congressman Dalip Singh Saund
Born near Amritsar, India in 1899, Dalip Singh Saund was an unlikely future candidate for national office when he came to the United States in 1920 to study food preservation at the University of California, Berkeley. But in 1956 Saund, whose career would span the vocations of mathematician, farmer, author, activist and judge, became the […]
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Faith on the Hill: 2008
Members of Congress are often accused of being out of touch with average citizens, but an examination of the religious affiliations of U.S. senators and representatives shows that, on one very basic level, Congress looks much like the rest of the country. Although a majority of the members of the new, 111th Congress, which will […]
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Solid Majority Favors Congressional Troop Deadline
Summary of Findings A solid majority of Americans say they want their congressional representative to support a bill calling for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by August 2008. Nearly six-in-ten (59%) say they would like to see their representative vote for such legislation, compared with just 33% who want their representative to oppose […]
