![]() Looking at the eight full lame duck sessions that were held between 19, on average they accounted for about 18% of the legislative output of their respective Congresses. Those figures are up compared with recent history. In 2010, the 99 public laws passed during the 111th Congress’ lame duck session accounted for 25.8% of all that Congress’ laws (and 29.2% of its substantive laws). The last Congress’ lame duck, which stretched from November 2012 past New Year’s Day 2013, passed only 87 public laws, but that was 30.7% of the Congress’ entire two-year output and 31.3% of its substantive output (that is, excluding post-office renamings, National “fill-in-the-blank” Week designations and other purely ceremonial legislation). Our analysis found that lame duck sessions are shouldering more of the legislative workload than they used to. We wondered, how productive are these lame duck sessions, and is the “lame” part of the tag deserved? Among the items on the congressional to-do list: keeping the government funded, extending an assortment of expired tax breaks, and voting on nominees for ambassadorships, judgeships and other offices. The four-month gap between the election and inauguration used to be necessary in the early days of the country to give new presidents time to uproot their lives and move to the nation's capital.Congress is back from its Thanksgiving break to continue its “lame duck” session - so called because it includes senators and representatives who lost their seats in last month’s elections but whose terms won’t expire till January. That amendment – nicknamed the "Lame Duck Amendment," according to the National Archives –was ratified in 1933 and moved up the inauguration and start of a new Congress.īefore the 20th Amendment, the presidential inauguration was held in early March, the archives report. The gap between election and inauguration is much shorter now than it used to be, thanks to the 20th Amendment of the Constitution. A 2015 Atlantic report called it " offensive to both humans and, we can reasonably assume, the entire waterfowl community." Writing about President Barack Obama's final days, the magazine argued the term undersells how effective "lame duck" presidents can be when freed from concerns about reelection. Over time, it became more commonly used as the political term and is now so widely accepted that it has its own Merriam Webster entry. Hence, they are informally called 'lame duck' members participating in a 'lame duck' session." The Senate recognizes the term and defines a "'lame duck' session" as one that occurs after a November general election and before a new Congress takes power in January: "Some lawmakers who return for this session will not be in the next Congress. Other officeholders can also be called "lame ducks." Here are a few things to know about the term: Are only presidents called a 'lame duck'? However, lame-duck presidents have been known to use this period to exercise some of their powers – such as the presidential pardon – with less concern about public opinion. Typically, this decreases the power of the "lame duck" officeholder as attention shifts to the politician's incoming replacement. "Lame duck" refers to a politician who remains in power but will soon be replaced by a newly elected successor. President Donald Trump has not conceded the 2020 election to Joe Biden, but he's heading into the lame-duck period of his presidency based on voting projections.
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