* Official annual calendars published by the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
* Congressional Record Daily Digest data accessed through the GovInfo API
Method:
* Official House calendars were manually tabulated to identify annual in-session days from 1975–2025.
* Congressional Record Daily Digest entries were analyzed to extract House floor session start and adjournment times.
* Sessions lasting 15 minutes or less were excluded as a behavioral proxy for short procedural/pro forma sessions.
* “Working days” were defined as official House in-session days where the House met for more than 15 minutes.
The chart compares:
* Official House in-session days
* Estimated House working days after excluding short sessions
Working days fell from 173 in 1975 to 109 in 2025.
Red and blue dots indicate party control of the House.
Tools:
* PostgreSQL
* Python
* PowerPoint
Sources:
* Clerk of the U.S. House annual calendars
* Congressional Record Daily Digest / GovInfo API
milkyjoe241 on
Old people need their naps
Silver_Smurfer on
Without axes this is a worthless infographic.
ACorania on
No one wants to work these days. Hard to hire good representatives.
Narf234 on
I’m going to keep this in mind next time someone tries to rip on teachers for summers off.
Mrrrrggggl on
What work are they doing aside from deferring governance to the executive branch?
Denver80211 on
Did they check in the couch?
ProbeRusher on
50 less days to try and resolve government shutdowns
PreventableMob on
Eh. They seem informative without unnecessary information. 46 labels sounds _terrible_, doesn’t it?
jaunty411 on
So, this coincides with the rise of global digital communications. Now we have email, FaceTime, teams, cell phones. There is less need to be face to face now than 50 years ago.
Poverty_Shoes on
They didn’t lose them. Transportation and remote work tech are the best they’ve ever been. They’re just lazy and keep looking for excuses to do less work while enriching themselves through insider trading. Time away from Congress is supposed to be for interacting with their local constituents so they can better represent their voters. Many of them don’t even actually live in their own district and spend their recesses vacationing elsewhere. But voters are apathetic, and gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics reduce the impact of those who do want to vote. So the cycle continues.
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**Source & Methodology**
Data sources:
* Official annual calendars published by the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
* Congressional Record Daily Digest data accessed through the GovInfo API
Method:
* Official House calendars were manually tabulated to identify annual in-session days from 1975–2025.
* Congressional Record Daily Digest entries were analyzed to extract House floor session start and adjournment times.
* Sessions lasting 15 minutes or less were excluded as a behavioral proxy for short procedural/pro forma sessions.
* “Working days” were defined as official House in-session days where the House met for more than 15 minutes.
The chart compares:
* Official House in-session days
* Estimated House working days after excluding short sessions
Working days fell from 173 in 1975 to 109 in 2025.
Red and blue dots indicate party control of the House.
Tools:
* PostgreSQL
* Python
* PowerPoint
Sources:
* Clerk of the U.S. House annual calendars
* Congressional Record Daily Digest / GovInfo API
Old people need their naps
Without axes this is a worthless infographic.
No one wants to work these days. Hard to hire good representatives.
I’m going to keep this in mind next time someone tries to rip on teachers for summers off.
What work are they doing aside from deferring governance to the executive branch?
Did they check in the couch?
50 less days to try and resolve government shutdowns
Eh. They seem informative without unnecessary information. 46 labels sounds _terrible_, doesn’t it?
So, this coincides with the rise of global digital communications. Now we have email, FaceTime, teams, cell phones. There is less need to be face to face now than 50 years ago.
They didn’t lose them. Transportation and remote work tech are the best they’ve ever been. They’re just lazy and keep looking for excuses to do less work while enriching themselves through insider trading. Time away from Congress is supposed to be for interacting with their local constituents so they can better represent their voters. Many of them don’t even actually live in their own district and spend their recesses vacationing elsewhere. But voters are apathetic, and gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics reduce the impact of those who do want to vote. So the cycle continues.