text: Congress is on pace to make history with the least productive legislative year in the post World War II era. 
   
   Just 61 bills have become law to date in 2012 out of 3,914 bills that have been introduced by lawmakers, or less than 2% of all proposed laws, according to a USA TODAY analysis of records since 1947 kept by the U.S. House Clerk's office. 
   
   In 2011, after Republicans took control of the U.S. House, Congress passed just 90 bills into law. The only other year in which Congress failed to pass at least 125 laws was 1995. 
   
   These statistics make the 112th Congress, covering 2011-12, the least productive two-year gathering on Capitol Hill since the end of World War II. Not even the 80th Congress, which President Truman called the "do-nothing Congress" in 1948, passed as few laws as the current one, records show. 
   
   The difference between 1995 and now is that Republicans rebounded in the second year of the 104th Congress in 1996, churning out 245 laws with a Democratic president, including a tax cut package, a minimum wage increase, an overhaul of the nation's welfare system, and requiring law enforcement to disclose where sex offenders live. 
   
   Doug Heye, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., defended the chamber, citing over 30 economic measures the House has passed that have fizzled in the Democratic-run Senate "at the behest of a president who is presiding over the worst economic recovery in history." 
   
   Unproductive Congress Fewer laws have been passed by this Congress than by any other in the last 65 years. Number of laws passed each year by Congress since 1947: 
   
   
   
   2012: 61; 2011: 90; 2010: 258; 2009: 125; 2008: 280; 2007: 180; 2006: 313; 2005: 169; 2004: 300; 2003: 198; 2002: 241; 2001: 136; 2000: 410; 1999: 170; 1998: 241; 1997: 153; 1996: 245; 1995: 88; 1994: 255; 1993: 210; 1992: 347; 1991: 243; 1990: 410; 1989: 240; 1988: 473; 1987: 240; 1986: 424; 1985: 240; 1984: 408; 1983: 215; 1982: 328; 1981: 145; 1980: 426; 1979: 187; 1978: 411; 1977: 223; 1976: 383; 1975: 205; 1974: 404; 1973: 245; 1972: 383; 1971: 224; 1970: 505; 1969: 190; 1968: 391; 1967: 391; 1966: 461; 1965: 349; 1964: 408; 1963: 258; 1962: 484; 1961: 401; 1960: 417; 1959: 383; 1958: 620; 1957: 316; 1956: 638; 1955: 390; 1954: 492; 1953: 288; 1952: 339; 1951: 255; 1950: 481; 1949: 440; 1948: 511; 1947: 395 
   
   
   
   Source: House Clerk's Office 
   
   When Democrats controlled both chambers during the 111th Congress, 258 laws were enacted in 2010 and 125 in 2009, including President Obama's health care law. 
   
   The 112th Congress will conclude after Election Day following an anticipated lame duck session. It has been defined by partisan divisions and legislative failures, including a bipartisan "Super Committee" that failed to enact $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. 
   
   Issues on which the divided Congress has not found consensus include the Dec. 31 expiration of the Bush tax cuts and a budget plan to replace $109 billion in automatic spending cuts, a drought-relief plan passed by the House but not the Senate, the extension of the Senate-passed federal farm bill that is languishing in the House and a bill to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service. 
   
   The inertia continues to fuel Congress' historically low approval ratings, which hit 10% Tuesday, according to Gallup polling. ||||| That thud you just heard was the sound of Congress hitting an all-time low approval rating – again. 
   
   Gallup said Thursday that a mere 10 percent of Americans think members of Congress are doing a good job – the same approval rating from February of this year, which was the lowest in Gallup’s history. 
   
   And their disdain for Capitol Hill is one thing that Democrats, Republicans and independent voters can agree on. Low approval marks for Congress were consistent among party affiliation – with Democrats giving a 9 percent rating, Republicans 10 percent and independents 11 percent. 
   
   “It is difficult to pinpoint precise causes for these extraordinarily negative views, although the continuing poor economy is certainly a major factor,” pollster Frank Newport wrote in the analysis. “The fact that control of Congress is now divided, with a Republican majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate, may provide an opportunity for Americans of all political persuasions to dislike some aspect of Congress.” 
   
   The 112th Congress has consistently registered low approval ratings, according to Gallup. The highest mark came in May 2011, when 24 percent of Americans gave a thumbs-up to Congress. 
   
   Other surveys during this Congress have shown even worse numbers. A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted in October found that Congress earned a 9 percent public approval rating. 
   
   Tuesday’s poll surveyed 1,012 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
target: – Harry Truman called the 80th Congress "do-nothing" in 1948, but they look like massive overachievers compared to today's crop of lawmakers, a USA Today analysis finds. The 112th Congress has passed just 61 bills out of 3,914 into law this year, putting it on course to be the most unproductive since year-end records began in 1947. Only 90 bills became law last year. One post-World War II year, 1995, had an even lower total than 2011, but the Republican-controlled Congress managed to produce 245 laws the following year with a Democratic president. After two years marked by partisanship and failure to agree on issues including debt reduction and drought relief, the 112th Congress will conclude after Election Day and most people will be happy to see it go, according to the latest Gallup poll. The poll found that just 10% of Americans think members of Congress are doing a good job, tying a record low set in February of this year. The highest approval rating this Congress has received came in May 2011, when it reached the dizzying heights of 24% approval, notes Politico.