National

Gridlock in Congress

Is gridlock in Congress a failure that calls for changing the rules, or a safeguard working as designed?

Information checked against its sources on October 13, 2026.

First drafted by Claude, an AI model. Edited and reviewed for balance by Leonard Dalenberg. How this site is written

Side A

Gridlock is a breakdown. Change the rules.

Supporters of reform say Congress can no longer do its basic job. A party can win the House, the Senate and the presidency and still be unable to pass what it campaigned on, because most bills need 60 votes in the Senate. Voters then cannot tell who to hold responsible, and elections stop producing results.

To give a minority a negative upon the majority … is, in its tendency, to subject the sense of the greater number to that of the lesser. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 22

The 60-vote rule is not in the Constitution. The framers required supermajorities for a short list of things, such as treaties and overriding a veto. Ordinary laws were meant to pass by majority.
Stalemate has real costs. Missed budget deadlines lead to shutdowns that furlough workers and interrupt services, and long-running problems go unaddressed for years.
Power moves elsewhere. When Congress does not act, presidents govern by executive order and courts and agencies settle questions that elected lawmakers should decide.
Blocking is too easy. A senator no longer has to hold the floor and talk. Signaling an objection is enough to trigger the 60-vote requirement.

The remedies proposed range from requiring filibustering senators to actually speak, to ending the legislative filibuster outright.

Side B

Gridlock is a safeguard. Leave the brakes on.

Defenders of the current system say slow lawmaking is what the framers intended. Separate branches, two chambers and staggered elections were built to make sweeping change difficult unless support for it is broad and lasting. A closely divided Congress is an accurate picture of a closely divided country.

The injury which may possibly be done by defeating a few good laws, will be amply compensated by the advantage of preventing a number of bad ones. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 73

Narrow majorities should not remake the country. A 51-vote Senate could pass major laws on party lines, and the next majority could repeal them. Families and businesses would face policy that reverses every few years.
The 60-vote rule forces compromise. Laws that need votes from both parties tend to last, because both parties own them.
The cause is disagreement, not procedure. Congress stalls where the public is split. Changing the rules would not create agreement; it would let one half override the other.
Each party will be in the minority again. Both parties have defended the filibuster when out of power and regretted weakening it when control changed hands.

On this view the remedy for gridlock is persuasion and winning larger majorities, not lowering the bar.

Other views

The rules are not the problem; the incentives are. Some argue that party primaries, safe districts and nationalized fundraising reward lawmakers for refusing to deal. Their remedies are electoral: open primaries, ranked-choice voting, or independent redistricting.
Congress has weakened itself. Others point to power concentrated in party leaders, with committees and individual members sidelined. They want a return to committee work and open amendment, known as regular order.
Fix the damage, keep the brakes. A middle position leaves the filibuster alone but removes the worst consequences of stalemate, for example by continuing funding automatically when a budget deadline is missed.
Send more decisions to the states. Where the country is too divided to agree nationally, some argue the answer is to decide less in Washington.

Factual review

What is established

The 118th Congress (2023–2025) enacted fewer laws than any Congress in decades. Counts differ by method, from about 150 to 209, against more than 350 in the Congress before it.¹
The Senate adopted its cloture rule in 1917, requiring two-thirds to end debate. In 1975 the threshold became three-fifths of all senators, which is 60 votes.²
Nominations no longer need 60 votes. Senate majorities changed that by simple-majority votes in 2013 and 2017, and eased confirmation further in 2025.³ The 60-vote rule for ordinary bills remains in place; the Senate majority leader said repeatedly in 2026 that the votes to end it were not there.
The 2025 government shutdown ran 43 days, from October 1 to November 12, the longest full shutdown on record; the previous record was 35 days in 2018–19. A funding lapse limited to the Department of Homeland Security ran 76 days, from February 14 to April 30, 2026.⁴
Ten percent of Americans approved of Congress in Gallup's April 2026 survey, one point above the lowest reading on record; 86 percent disapproved, matching the record high.⁵
Congress has passed all of its regular spending bills on time in only four years since the current budget process took effect: fiscal 1977, 1989, 1995 and 1997.⁶

What is disputed

Does divided government cause gridlock? Political scientist David Mayhew found that about as many major laws pass when the parties share power as when one party controls everything.⁷ Sarah Binder measures the share of the national agenda left unresolved and finds deadlock is common and has institutional causes.⁸ The two measure different things.
Is the number of laws a fair measure? Congress now bundles much of its work into a few very large bills, so a lower count does not by itself show that less was done.
Does the filibuster produce compromise? Supporters point to bipartisan laws passed with 60 votes. Critics say it more often produces no bill at all. Neither claim can be tested directly, because nobody can observe what would have passed under different rules.

Where it comes down to values

Majority rule or minority protection. How much should a national majority be able to do over the objection of a large minority?
Action or stability. Is it worse for government to fail to act on a real problem, or to act and then reverse itself after the next election?
Which mistake to fear. A system can be built to stop bad laws or to pass needed ones. Building for one makes the other more likely. Facts cannot settle which risk a person would rather run.

Sources

Axios, “The 118th Congress passed the fewest bills in decades,” Dec. 30, 2024 (Quorum count); NewsNation, Dec. 2024 (National Archives count of 209). axios.com
U.S. Senate, “About Filibusters and Cloture: Historical Overview.” senate.gov
Bloomberg Government, “Senate's Flagship Rule Is on Shaky Ground After ‘Nuclear’ Move,” Sept. 2025. news.bgov.com The Hill, “Thune: ‘Not even close’ to enough votes to change filibuster rule,” 2026. thehill.com
Reuters, “Factbox: The longest US government shutdowns,” Nov. 2025. aol.com BAL, “United States: Congress ends DHS shutdown,” May 2026. bal.com
Gallup, “Disapproval of Congress Ties Record High at 86%,” April 22, 2026 (survey of April 1–15). news.gallup.com
Pew Research Center, “Congress has long struggled to pass spending bills on time,” Oct. 1, 2025. pewresearch.org
David R. Mayhew, Divided We Govern, 2nd ed., Yale University Press, 2005. yalebooks.yale.edu
Sarah A. Binder, Stalemate: Causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock, Brookings Institution Press, 2003. brookings.edu
Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist No. 22 and No. 73, Yale Law School Avalon Project. No. 22, No. 73

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