A few blocks away, Congress was using its last hours to approve two others: the New START nuclear arms pact with Russia, and a bill to extend health benefits to workers who responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "This was by far the most productive Congress in American history, and the lame-duck session we're finishing was the most productive of its kind," he said. In the Nov. 2 elections, Democrats lost 63 House seats, costing their party control of the chamber in next year’s Congress. The list grew longer during this month's frenetic lame-duck session: tax cuts, a nuclear arms treaty and a repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military.
– The 111th Congress adjourned last night, after passing more key legislation that affected more Americans than any since Lyndon Johnson’s 1960s “Great Society,” Bloomberg reports. That included $1.67 trillion spent to save the economy, health insurance for 32 million people, and new regulations on Wall Street; in the lame-duck session alone, there was the tax cut deal, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, START treaty ratification, and 9/11 health bill. Yet all this occurred in “most dysfunctional political environment that I have ever seen,” says an analyst. Republicans won sweeping victories in the midterm election, and a recent Gallup poll found an 83% disapproval rating for Congress, its highest since the poll began, the Washington Post notes. “What we did was work, and our reward was, ‘Get out of here,’” said a House Democrat. Not everybody's happy with the progress: "I think it was a disaster,” says a GOP senator.