How many post offices did Congress name?
And what gets more dollars from taxpayers: defense or social programs?
Post office naming data
NOTUS published a piece last month on Congress’s habit of naming post offices. Why do legislators introduce such bills, which do no more than mandate that a small plaque be installed? Answer: To please voters in their home districts and states.
NOTUS’ piece suggested that post office naming laws seemed to be declining in number, and, distressingly, that these bills comprised most of the legislation passed in the 118th Congress, which ran from 2023-2024.
Well, the data above show the 118th Congress passed 68 of these laws that got signed by the President. That number is middling compared to the Congresses of the past 20 years.
And by my count, the 118th Congress passed 274 laws. That means post office naming bills were 24.8% of all laws passed. That’s a little higher than it was a decade ago, when naming bills were 20% of all laws passed.
For background on this peculiar lawmaking habit, see this report that Nye Stevens first authored.
Interesting fact about spending on social programs and defense
Nick Eberstadt and Patrick Norrick, who created the above figure, write,
The last time defense spending exceeded social spending in Washington was during Nixon’s first term, over half a century ago. By the Carter years, Washington was spending over twice as much on social programs as defense. By Clinton’s second term, the ratio was nearly four to one. In 2022, the tail end of the Covid pandemic and the first full year of Biden’s Presidency, that ratio exceeded six to one. (Today it is down to “only” five to one.)
How much can you donate to a candidate?
The above charts comes from the Federal Elections Commission, which recently announced the current legally allowable contributions.
ICYMI: Executive actions will only take Trump so far
Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL) recently took to X.com to celebrate the Immigration and Customs Officials arrests of more than 600 illegal immigrants. “Promises made, promises kept!” she crowed, shortly after President Donald Trump took office for his second, non-consecutive term.
Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) struck a similar note that day when asked by the media about Trump’s “avalanche” of 200 executive actions. “Trump 45… Trump 47—there’s one thing I think everyone will notice… the theme, promises made and promises kept.” Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined the chorus, praising the president for stopping a wind turbine project and for deploying military troops to the US-Mexican border…. (Read more)
Fine post. Yuval Levin said it really well the other day in National Review: Trump directs the Executive Branch but not the totality of government. Congress still has the power of the purse. How the courts inevitably resolve the ability of the Trump Administration to fire commissioners elected to multi-year terms and holding seats reserved for the other party (see: Ellen Weintrab at the FEC) will be very interesting.