LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Congress started 2025 with a big legislative agenda. House Speaker Mike Johnson put it this way in his first address to his chamber this year.
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MIKE JOHNSON: In spite of our great challenges, and even our disagreements and our healthy debates, this extraordinary institution - the people's House - will still be standing strong.
FADEL: But 12 months later, Congress has ceded much of its power to President Trump and has passed a record-low number of bills. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has been following this and joins us now. Hi, Claudia.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Hey, Leila.
FADEL: OK. So congressional Republicans started the year with these ambitious plans to pass bills, to strengthen the economy, address the border crisis, boost the military. Did any of that happen?
GRISALES: Not exactly, unless you look at their marquee tax and spending plan they called the One Big Beautiful Bill, which became law. They would argue that is the key legislation that passed, but the jury's still out if this is going to have the advertised impact on the economy. And it was the exception to the rule. Congress ceded a lot of its power to the president this year. That included dismantling large sections of the federal government, taking over the power of the purse during the government shutdown by directing spending that was prohibited at that time and triggering the clawback of billions of spending that had been approved by Congress. And as you mentioned, we heard from public affairs network C-SPAN. They reported the number of laws enacted this year are at that all-time low.
FADEL: Now, Republicans are the majority in both the House and Senate, but that is very narrow. How did leaders fare in 2025?
GRISALES: Yeah. It definitely made it more difficult for them. In the House, we saw Speaker Mike Johnson lose more control of his conference. By year-end, he faced a rare series of successful discharge petitions. These are bipartisan efforts by rank-and-file members to bypass the speaker and pass law. And none was more noteworthy than the one securing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. He also saw Republican pushback when he virtually closed the house down during the 43-day government shutdown. He's facing a record number of House retirements. That includes nearly 30 Republicans.
FADEL: OK, so some division within his own party. What about the Senate? How did Majority Leader John Thune fare in comparison?
GRISALES: Well, he didn't end the year with the same level of animosity, but he saw challenges, too. I asked him about lessons learned. Here's what he told me.
JOHN THUNE: You know, I mean, sometimes you get frustrated that you don't get the things done you want to get done. But you got to keep trying there.
GRISALES: Ultimately, the Senate approved a majority of Trump's nominees for the administration and federal courts. But not until recently did we see more Senate Republicans push back publicly on the president with some issues, such as the strikes on alleged drug traffickers at sea. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told me these challenges and the chaos we've seen with the federal government, the economy, Trump's tariff policies have all created an opening for Democrats.
FADEL: Now, Congress will face even greater challenges next year with the midterms on tap. What do you expect to see?
GRISALES: Well, lawmakers have their eye on exactly those midterms in November. Even with Republicans redistricting to add seats in the House, it's still not clear they're going to keep their majority. They face the prospect of another government shutdown threat in January, and that's in addition to calls for Washington to address an affordability crisis that we expect will dominate on the campaign trail. And there's also those spiking premiums for health insurance after Congress failed to extend subsidies for Obamacare plans. This is going to likely add fuel to the fire that Congress is not addressing a lot of urgent issues for American families come November.
FADEL: That's NPR's Claudia Grisales. Thank you, Claudia.
GRISALES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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