Introduction
What happened to the thousands of bills that were introduced during the 110th session of Congress? Over the course of two years thousands of bills were introduced, but by the end only 442 laws were enacted. What happened to the rest?
What Happened in the 110th Congress?
- Total number of bills introduced: 11059 (3724 in Senate, 7335 in House)
- Total number of bills that became law: 442 (134 introduced in Senate, 308 introduced in House)
- Percentage of bills that became law: 4%
- Most popular stage for a bill to die: Committee of the chamber bill is introduced in.
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Flow Map
This flow map helps us visualize where do bills go to die. The thickness of the line going into any stage is related to the number of bills that died in that stage.
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Bar Graph
This graph depicts how many bills make it into each stage.
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Line Chart
How long do bills that do not make it as laws generally live? Suppose all bills in the 110th Congress started on the same day, this chart displays the number of bills that are still alive each day.
Exploring Deeper into the Data
This visualization will help you have a better understanding as to what happens to each bill over the course of the session. Each bill is represented by a colored box whose size increases as it progresses through the legislative process. A green box means the bill is still alive, blue means the bill is a law, and red means the bill died. Warning: this flash applet may lock up your browser while loading, this is normal.