When it comes to productivity, how much you get done in a given amount of time, it's all about what you measure. Let's apply this to Congress.

I'm David Brancaccio, if wheels spinning and posturing where the metric, analysts might say productivity in Congress

was high this year, but in terms of getting laws on the books to make things better,

productivity was low. Our Nancy Marshall Genser covers Washington and

has been looking through the record. Hey Nancy. Hey David. 26 bills were passed by

both houses of Congress and signed into law by the president.

This year, that according to the data analytics firm Quorum, not a lot.

Not a lot because of the huge partisan and philosophical divide on Capitol Hill.

Democrats believe the government should be doing things, but some Republicans say the less government the better.

Here's how Molly Reynolds sees it. She's a

senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.

Even as the House was voting a lot this year, they were not always voting on things that were in pursuit of actual legislative

accomplishments. A lot of time using the floor to say things as opposed to using the floor to do things.

And Reynolds says the last time we had a divided Congress like this was in 2019 and that

year she says a hundred five bills were signed into law compared to again only 26 this year.

So if lawmakers received performance-based pay if their salary was based on how

productive they were how much would they receive?

They certainly wouldn't get a bonus, David.

Congress still hasn't approved more aid for Ukraine, Israel, and the border, and it faces looming government shutdown deadlines next year.

Nancy, thank you.

With three more trading days left of 2023, Dow S&P and NASDAQ futures are little changed this morning.

Year to date, the NASDAQ is up 45%, S&P up just under 25%, and the Russell 2000

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