California Representative Eric Swalwell has criticized Congressional Republicans for presiding over one of the least productive sessions of Congress in recent history, attributing the low legislative output to insufficient focus and bipartisan collaboration.

“There wasn’t much else being done in this Congress. And so, as we go into the new year, if Republicans want to work with us to bring down costs, reduce what we spend at the grocery store, they’re going to find partners in us,” said Swalwell during an appearance on The Weekend.

Swalwell, who is leaving his House seat to pursue the California governorship as a potential successor to Gavin Newsom, highlighted his own contribution to the limited legislative achievements of the session. “I’m responsible for one of those 40 bills that was passed. It was a bipartisan piece of legislation to make it easier for mothers who are breastfeeding to travel through airports and not have their breast milk screened,” he noted.

Congressional records reveal a stark decline in legislative activity. The House of Representatives has taken only 362 votes in the first session of the 119th Congress, compared to 710 measures considered during the same period under Republican leadership in 2015. This year, just 61 bills have been enacted into law, with merely 38 being substantive legislation rather than congressional resolutions.

Republicans, however, counter that Democrats share responsibility for the congressional gridlock. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) accused Democrats of deliberately creating obstacles on issues like government spending to undermine Republican productivity and success.

“The American public are pawns in the dysfunction. But again, understand Democrats, they want the shutdown,” Johnson asserted on Sunday Morning Features, referring to the record 43-day government shutdown earlier this year. “They were responsible for it because they don’t want President Trump and Republicans to have success. So, if the American economy is collateral damage, they don’t care because they just want power.”

Despite having already adjourned until 2026, Congress faces several pressing issues requiring attention in the new year. Most urgently, lawmakers must pass spending legislation before the end of January to avoid another government shutdown.

Another critical deadline involves the potential extension of enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare). These subsidies, initially implemented as an emergency response to COVID-19, are set to expire at the end of the year. Without an extension, Democrats warn that the majority of Obamacare’s 24 million enrollees will experience significant overnight increases in their premium costs.

In a promising development for bipartisan cooperation, a small group of Republicans broke with their party last month to vote with Democrats on setting up consideration of a subsidy extension in January. Swalwell views this as an opportunity for improved cross-party collaboration in 2026.

“The mandate now, the majority of the House of Representatives wants to put these subsidies in place so that Americans can pay less for healthcare. So, it’s now on the speaker, when we reconvene in just a couple of days, whether he will put this up for a vote,” Swalwell said.

He added a political warning: “But if not, the midterm message will be this, it costs too much. It costs too much in what we pay at the grocery store and figuratively, it costs too much in the fights that we’re losing under this administration.”

As the new year approaches, the productivity debate underscores the broader partisan tensions that continue to define Washington politics, with both sides accusing the other of obstructionism while millions of Americans await action on healthcare, government funding, and economic relief.