Among Democratic members of Congress who posted about the Las Vegas attack on Facebook, 63% mentioned guns, compared with only 2% of congressional Republicans, according to a new analysis.
Since 1999, 742 proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been introduced in the House or Senate, including 59 so far in the current Congress. But not one has become part of the Constitution.
The 115th Congress is among the most productive in recent years – though a sizable share of its laws to date have been aimed at scrapping Obama-era rules. To date, Congress has passed 55 measures that have been signed into law, 46 of which we consider “substantive” by our deliberately generous criteria.
The most liberal and conservative members of the 115th Congress have attracted more Facebook followers than moderates. In both legislative chambers, members’ ideology is a strong predictor of the number of people who follow them on Facebook.
President Donald Trump’s first budget request to Congress would make deep cuts to government programs, including Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income adults and children. Recent polls have found little public support for cuts to Medicaid, but that may not be a surprise: Americans tend not to favor budget cuts when asked about specific areas being affected.
About nine-in-ten (91%) of the nation’s federal lawmakers describe themselves as Christians, compared with 71% of U.S. adults who say the same. More than half of U.S. states have delegations that are composed entirely of Christians, while Hawaii has no Christians in its congressional delegation.
Women comprise 19.4% of the U.S. Congress and 24.8% of state legislatures, and four women are holding Cabinet-level positions under Donald Trump. While the share of Fortune 500 chief executives who are female remains very small, women are now more widely represented on Fortune 500 boards.
Also: See an interactive on women leadership in America.
Currently, 54% approve of the health care law passed seven years ago by Barack Obama and Congress, while 43% disapprove. Democrats overwhelmingly support the law, with 85% expressing approval. Republicans are divided: nearly equal shares say Republican leaders in Congress should focus their efforts on modifying the law (42%) and focus on getting rid of it entirely (44%).
Republicans say they are more inclined to trust the president, rather than GOP congressional leaders, if the two sides disagree. For their part, Democrats are far more concerned that congressional Democrats will not do enough, rather than go too far, to oppose Trump. Read more.
An analysis of more than 200,000 press releases and social media posts found that Congressional leaders and very liberal and conservative legislators in the 114th Congress were the most negative toward the other party in their public outreach. Critical posts on Facebook saw more likes, comments, and shares.
Also: Q&A with Solomon Messing of Pew Research Center’s Data Labs
Apart from its political makeup and policy objectives, the new Congress differs from prior ones in other ways, including its demographics. See five charts that show how Congress has changed over the long term.
Almost one-in-five voting members of the House and Senate are a racial or ethnic minority, making the 115th U.S. Congress the most diverse in history. And while Congress as a whole remains disproportionately white when compared with the U.S. population, the racial and ethnic profile of newly elected members more closely resembles the increasingly diverse populace
President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal for a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress has drawn new attention to an issue that, after a burst of popularity in the 1990s, had been mostly dormant for nearly two decades. Few states currently place term limits on their legislators, but most of them (36) limit how many terms their governors can serve.
56% of Americans say the Senate should hold hearings and vote on President Obama’s choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, but there are wide ideological divisions.
Majority of Public Wants Senate to Act on Obama’s Court Nominee
If Senate Republicans stick with their declared intention to not consider anyone President Obama might nominate to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, his seat on the court could remain vacant for a year or more. That would be the longest vacancy on the court in nearly five decades, but by no means the longest in U.S. history.