The One Big Beautiful Bill Republicans passed in July is in danger of becoming the only big bill the GOP enacts in its stint in power.
Ever since moving the sweeping legislation to cut taxes and reduce spending, House Republicans have been largely stifled by paralysis and infighting. The stagnant stretch heading into 2026 leaves the GOP at risk of squandering what’s left of their rare moment of total control in Washington.
Every House seat is up for grabs in next year’s elections, and recent campaign results suggest the GOP’s majority is in grave danger, giving them a limited window for action, and little momentum.
“Let’s just say there’s a lot of work left to do,” said former Rep.
Adding to the struggle: President
“We don’t need it because we got everything,” in the first measure, Trump said as he instead looks overseas and uses executive power to advance his agenda.
House Speaker
So much was packed into the big tax bill, he said, that it amounts to “some of the most nation-shaping, productive, pro-growth politics that have ever occurred.”
The bill, however, has polled poorly, and a number of Republicans have complained publicly and privately about not getting more done.
Much of the frustration stems from Johnson’s decision to keep the House out of session for the fall’s 43-day government shutdown, cutting off legislative work, and adding to an ornery atmosphere that now makes it harder to pass more bills. The Senate kept working through the shutdown.
Through the end of November the House had been in session this year for 505 hours, according to Congressional records, compared to 642 hours in the same time period of the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency, and 781 hours in the first 11 months of Trump’s first term.
The chamber passed 433 measures through Nov. 30, 13 fewer than in the same frame of Biden’s first term, and 175 fewer than the same stretch of Trump’s first presidency — a 40% decrease. Including the Senate, this Congress created 42 laws through November. That’s down from 69 laws through November of Biden’s first year, and 89 in the same window of Trump’s first term.
Rep.
Signs of Dysfunction
Without Trump enforcing discipline, however, Johnson shows signs of losing his already shaky grip on his thin majority, which has been in single digits all year.
“I don’t think they have a unifying project right now,” said Molly Reynolds, a nonpartisan expert on Congress at the Brookings Institution.
Johnson has faced discharge petitions that allow rank-and-file members to take control of the floor agenda, defiance from fellow Republicans on basic procedural steps, increasingly vocal personal criticism from within his own conference, and a dire political forecast as Democrats have dominated recent elections.
“If there was a well-functioning majority,” the House would have moved more than three of the 12 annual spending bills, Reynolds said, “if for no other reason than to articulate their priorities in a clear way.”
This week could illustrate the drift. Despite months of debate on health care, House Republicans are still at odds over how to address steep price hikes for millions who rely on the Affordable Care Act for insurance.
Outsourcing to Trump
Johnson’s declining power shows the flip side of the factors that helped him suddenly rise as the successor to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
As Republicans tore themselves apart looking for a replacement in late 2023, Johnson’s thin record meant he had no hardened enemies, making him acceptable across the conference. But he also had no firm base of support, and effectively outsourced his political standing to Trump. Johnson clung closely to Trump, who in turn kept Republicans in line behind the speaker.
But now Trump’s political aura has dimmed, the president has turned his attention elsewhere, and Johnson and House Republicans are flailing.
Other Republicans pointed to their historically narrow majority and lengthy shutdown as explanations for their frequent roadblocks.
“Given our narrow majority, it’s miraculous that we accomplished so much in the One Big, Beautiful Bill. I think we can do more,” said Rep.
Some, such as Rep.
House Republicans always faced a difficult task when just a few defections could block any bill. But the desire early this year to cut taxes unified them, along with knowing that failure meant steep tax hikes if Trump’s 2017 cuts expired.
Those factors are gone now.
There’s still a window early next year for more lawmaking, said McHenry said, who hoped for action on cryptocurrency and permitting reforms. But first lawmakers face a Jan. 30 deadline to fund the government and avert another shutdown, and they’re still grappling with whether or how to soften the blow of expiring health care subsidies.
Some Republicans are talking up a second major party-line bill next year, perhaps to address health care. But it’s telling, Reynolds said, that after months of that talk, no one has clearly said what might be included.
“It’s unclear what else they could do that they didn’t get into the One Big Beautiful Bill that they all agree it’s important to do,” she said.
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