WASHINGTON — The 119th Congress passed a GOP mega-bill that will cut taxes by $4.5 trillion over the next decade. This legislative action occurred alongside a broader trend where the current session has passed fewer bills than many of its predecessors.

Public dissatisfaction with the legislative branch remains high. Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say they are unhappy with Congress. Carl Hulse, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, commented on this sentiment.

He said it is a great American pastime to hate Congress, but he does think there's a lot of frustration with Congress.

Hulse attributed much of the dysfunction to a lack of bipartisan cooperation. He said he has spent his career covering the decline of Congress and that they need to get it together.

He said there's just very, very little cooperation between the parties, and you can't make things happen that way. He said he does think a lot of lawmakers want to do the right thing, but they just can't quite get themselves there to do it.

While legislative output has slowed, executive action has increased. President Trump has issued over 260 executive orders in his current term. Trump has bypassed Congress on trade and the war with Iran.

Hulse warned that this shift in power dynamics could have lasting consequences. He said Article I is a real thing and that 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 said they're giving away the store and that 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 Trump, our guy. We needed to do that.' He said the next Democratic president isn't going to turn around and say Congress should be empowered again, and that it's not going to happen — it goes for good.

Despite the challenges, the 119th Congress did achieve some legislative milestones. The body passed a bipartisan housing bill. It also experienced a partial government shutdown over funds for homeland security.

Sarah Binder, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, described the institutional decline as a loss of legislative capability. She said both parties have diminished in the sense that Congress has enormous authority under the Constitution — power of the purse, power to declare war — but often cedes that authority to the president. She said all the authority is on the table, but Congress struggles to use it or get it back, and that the muscle memory for making deals, legislating, and solving problems has atrophied.

Philip Wallach, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, identified a shift in how lawmakers view their roles. He said what's changed is how members themselves see their jobs. He said what has been lost is the sense that members are sent to solve problems, which requires building coalitions and compromise. He said compromise has become a dirty word and that willingness to compromise is now seen as not holding true to one's values. He said today, 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 because Congress has for decades ceded authority to the executive branch, members believe the real action is in the executive and judicial branches.

Wallach noted that the nature of lawmaking inherently limits popularity. He said Congress doesn't need to be a very popular organization, even if it's working well, and that the old line about lawmaking and sausage-making exists for a reason. He said there's something unseemly about legislative politics that makes it hard for Congress to be popular.

Binder argued that public anger is justified given the scale of national challenges, though she acknowledged structural barriers. She said the public should be hard on Congress, citing $30 trillion in public debt, Social Security being on the brink, and issues like housing costs. She said people should be mad. At the same time, she said the public often has unreasonable expectations of what's possible, noting that big, broad bipartisan majorities are needed to get things done, which is difficult in a polarized America with factions in each party.

Wallach offered a more historical perspective on potential reform. He said taking the very long view about Congress makes him a little bit more hopeful. He said Congress has looked a lot of different ways over two centuries and that members have found ways to reform the institution to make it act completely differently. He said he thinks at some point, the country will turn a corner.