Unpredicted Bipartisanship Apparent in Federal Legislation Stats

In a revelation that there was more bipartisanship in Congress than realized, there are 2013 federal legislation statistics that seem to support a finding that all was not rancorous between the political parties and factions in Congress during the last congressional session.   A report published by the Sunlight Foundation noted that while only 15 Senate bills and 41 House bills became law in 2013, Congress was less partisan than commonly believed. 

There were a total 5,584 bills from both chambers introduced in 2013, with six subjects as the main focus for at least 50% of them:  health, armed forces/national security, taxation, public lands/natural resources, government operations/politics and education

At the other end of the scale, low priority issues were social sciences and history, civil rights and liberties/minority issues, families, and social welfare.  The report included a link to a list of all bill subjects and their frequency by chamber. 

With regards to bipartisanship, the Sunlight report noted that approximately 40 percent of the 2013 bills attracted “at least some bipartisan support (in that less than 90 percent of sponsors are of a single party).” 

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