118th Congress on track to become one of the least productive in US history

Lawmakers are halfway through the congressional session, and it looks like it could be a historic one for the wrong reasons, according to congressional data.

The 118th Congress is on track to being one of the least functional sessions ever, with only 34 bills passed since January of last year, the lowest number of bills passed in the first year of a congressional session since the Great Depression, according to congressional records.

«Even comparing against other periods of divided government, 2023 was definitely not a high water mark for Congress' productivity,» Molly Reynolds, a senior governance fellow at the nonpartisan research group the Brookings Institution, told ABC News.

Some of the 34 bills last year were not controversial, like the one that renamed Veterans Affairs clinics and one that minted a coin commemorating the anniversary of the Marine Corps.

Others were bills that had to be passed to keep the government funded or avoid default.

Congressional members of both political parties expressed their frustrations to reporters last year.

«This is the most ineffective congress that we have seen,» Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) told reporters.

«Shame on us, both parties. We sold the American public out on everything,» Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told reporters.

By comparison, the 113th and 114th Congresses, which took place during former President Barack Obama's second term, passed 196 and 329 bills, respectively, according to congressional data. The 113th Congress, in which the Republicans had control over the House while the Democrats had control of the Senate, was on track to be the least productive Congress after it only passed 56 bills in its first year, according to the data.

The 115th and 116th Congresses, which took place