WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly 9 in 10 Americans report being unhappy with Congress as the institution faces widespread gridlock and an abdication of constitutional authority to the executive branch. Chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times Carl Hulse said it is a great American pastime to hate Congress. He added that he does think there's a lot of frustration with Congress.

Hulse has covered Capitol Hill since the Reagan administration. He said he has spent his career covering the decline of Congress. This assessment comes as Republicans control the Senate and the House, yet legislation in the 119th Congress often faces gridlock.

The 119th Congress has passed fewer bills than many of its predecessors. Congress passed a GOP mega-bill that will cut taxes by $4.5 trillion over the next decade, and it also passed a bipartisan housing bill. However, these actions stand in contrast to a partial government shutdown that occurred over funds for homeland security.

President Trump has bypassed Congress on issues including trade and the war with Iran. He has issued over 260 executive orders in his current term. President Trump has issued more executive orders in five-and-a-half years than were issued in the 12 years of the Obama and Biden administrations.

Hulse said he thinks what's happened with the Republicans in this Congress, and ceding power to the administration, has been a real mistake on a lot of fronts — tariffs, war powers, the things that are actually enumerated in the Constitution. He added that they're giving away the store, and once you give away some power, you never get it back.

He said the Republicans might be looking at this and going, 'Well, you know, this is President Trump, our guy. We needed to do that.' However, he warned that the next Democratic president isn't going to turn around and say Congress should be empowered again. He added that it goes for good, and now it's both parties, much more aligned with the President.

He said there's just very, very little cooperation between the parties, and you can't make things happen that way. He added that it's hard to get things done, margins are tight, the districts are really gerrymandered, and there's a lot wrong with Congress. Despite the dysfunction, he said he does think a lot of them want to do the right thing, and they just can't quite get themselves there to do it.

Lawmakers have offered differing perspectives on the source of the institutional challenges. Rep. Peter Welch said the Republicans don't control the House and that the place is chaos. Sen. Katie Britt said unfortunately, Democrats have chosen to play politics and put that over people time and time again under this administration. Sen. Chris Coons said you've got the biggest voice in the room, Trump, fighting against his own Congress.

Governance experts describe the legislative branch as struggling and marginalized. Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said both parties have diminished Congress in the sense that it has enormous authority under the Constitution: power of the purse, power to declare war. She added that oftentimes, not just under Trump but reaching back decades, Congress cedes that authority to the president.

Binder said all the authority is on the table, but Congress is struggling to use it or get it back. She said the muscle memory for how to make deals, how to legislate, how to solve problems has atrophied. Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said what's changed is how the members themselves see their jobs.

He said what we've lost is the sense that members are sent to solve the problems of the American people, which means building coalitions and compromise. He added that compromise has too much become a dirty word in American politics today. He noted that people see their job as supporting the White House when it's their ally or fighting against it when the other party holds the presidency.

He said that since Congress has for decades ceded so much authority to the executive branch, members on Capitol Hill believe the real action is in the executive branch and the judiciary. Binder said the public should be hard on Congress. She cited $30 trillion in public debt as a reason the public should be mad. She also said Social Security is seemingly on the brink if Congress doesn't act soon, along with the cost of housing and other issues. She said people should be mad.

Binder said the public often has unreasonable expectations of what's possible. She noted that big, broad bipartisan majorities are needed to get things done, which is hard in a polarized America. She said she is an eternal optimist but not that hopeful about Congress. She added that the problems and their roots are going to be with us for a long time.

Binder said that whenever Congress has difficulties tackling problems, they kick them to the future, making challenges harder. Wallach offered a different long-term perspective. He said taking the very long view about Congress makes him a little bit more hopeful. He noted that Congress has looked many different ways over two centuries and has reformed itself before. He said at some point, the country is going to turn a corner.