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The First 500 Days of the Republican Congress: By the Numbers

May 19, 2016
Blog Post
500: Days since the start of this Republican Congress as of May 19

Only 217: Days the GOP House has been in session, including 32 pro-forma days in which the House gaveled in & out in a matter of minutes & no legislative business was completed

35Days since Speaker Ryan and House Republicans blew past the statutory deadline to enact a budget resolution.  House Republicans have now completely abandoned their promise to pass a budget.

ZERO: House Republican budget resolutions brought to the House floor for a vote.

$6.5 TrillionProposed cuts to key initiatives like Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps in Ryan's Road-to-Ruin budget proposal which wasn't sufficiently harsh enough to garner support from House Republicans.

ZERO: Hearings held or planned this year by the House Budget Committee on the President's FY 2017 budget – an unprecedented breach of protocol.

2:  Times House Republicans have voted against allowing a vote on the DISCLOSE Act, which would bring transparency to the unprecedented outside spending in our elections.  (2016 Vote #196, 2015 Vote #629)

100: Percent of House Republicans who voted against allowing a vote on a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which has created an explosion of special interest money in politics.

UNANIMOUS:  The Republican vote to target LGBT Americans by supporting the Russell amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that effectively overturns President Obama's historic executive order protecting LGBT workers in federal contracts, therefore enabling discrimination with taxpayer funds.

100:  Percent of House Republicans who voted against ensuring that LGBT schoolchildren are protected – by prohibiting discrimination against voucher students on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

UNANIMOUS:  The Republican vote in favor of the display of the Confederate Battle Flag at The Citadel and other institutions that train military officers with taxpayer funds.

4: Times House Republicans voted in support of the Confederate Battle Flag just last year (2015 Vote #429, 2015 Vote #426, 2015 Vote #425, 2015 Vote #385)

87: Days House Republicans have gone without acting on the President's urgent emergency supplemental request for $1.9 billion to combat the Zika virus.

4:  Times House Republicans blocked the full emergency resources needed to combat the Zika virus (2016 Vote #201, 2016 Vote #173, 2016 Vote #1682016 Vote #206.)

LESS THAN 1/3rdThe paltry fraction of the funding needed to combat Zika that House Republicans told desperate doctors and communities to make do with.

100:  Days of inaction from House Republicans to provide relief to desperate families in Flint, Michigan since House Democrats held a Steering & Policy Hearing entitled  ‘The Flint Water Crisis: Lessons for Protecting America's Children.'

2: Number of times Republicans voted in just one week to block the $600 million in fully paid-for vital new resources to address the opioid epidemic that kills 78 Americans every day. (2016 Vote #190, 2016 Vote #182)

2:  Times House Republicans have voted against allowing a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act, which gives women new tools to ensure equal pay for equal work.  (2015 Vote #154, 2015 Vote #148)

100:Percent of House Republicans who voted against allowing a vote to let American workers earn just seven job-protected sick days each year

100:  Percent of House Republicans who voted against bringing up a bill that would stop big corporations from renouncing their U.S. citizenship to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

241: Number of House Republicans who voted against allowing the House to even debate the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would protect Americans' most sacred right – the right to vote – by strengthening and restoring the Voting Rights Act

9: Number of House Republicans who voted against naming a post-office for African-American poet Dr. Maya Angelou

6: Number of House Republicans who voted against renaming a Department of Agriculture program to recruit women in science after Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to Congress.

100: Percent of House Republicans who voted against ensuring companies that use chemical substances or mixtures that can seep into the public water system provide state and federal agencies with data on how those chemicals could affect human health and the environment.

Nearly $7 million: Taxpayer dollars squandered so far during the House Republicans' politically-motivated Benghazi Select Committee

742: Days the Benghazi Select Committee has been ‘investigating' which is longer than the investigations of Pearl Harbor, Kennedy assassination, Iran-Contra, and Hurricane Katrina

4: Number of hearings aforementioned Benghazi Select Committee has held since it was established in 2014

11: Times House Republicans voted against closing the terrorist gun loophole and preventing people on the terrorist watchlist from buying firearms (2016 Vote #36, 2016 Vote #21, 2016 Vote #4, 2016 Vote #2, 2015 Vote #690, 2015 Vote #688, 2015 Vote #685, 2015 Vote #682, 2015 Vote #666, 2015 Vote #653, 2015 Vote #646)

ZERO: Republicans who have signed the discharge petition to force a vote on H.R. 1076, Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act

244:  Number of House Republicans who voted to block debate on bipartisan legislation to keep Americans safe with commonsense, comprehensive background checks to curb gun violence

4: Number of times House Republicans voted against lifting the unconscionable 19-year-long ban on federal research on gun violence (2016 Vote #77, 2016 Vote #65, 2016 Vote #55, 2016 Vote #48)

167: House Republicans who voted against a bipartisan budget agreement and NOT to uphold the full faith and credit of the United States on October 28, 2015

151: House Republicans who voted to shut down the federal government on September 30, 2015

235: House Republicans who voted to Pay China first – before our troops & disabled veterans – in the event Republicans were to cause the first-ever default on our nation's debt

100: Percent of House Republicans who voted against affirming climate change is real and that we must invest in a strong, sustainable energy future for our children

64:House Republicans who voted against the long overdue rewrite of No Child Left Behind because it continued the civil rights legacy of public education in targeting federal spending to schools and districts with the highest concentration of low-income students

More than 25,000:   Pages of documents Planned Parenthood has produced to the three House Committees that have already investigated the organization – and which have found no evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.  Yet House Republicans refuse to end their abusive, unnecessary Select Committee to Attack Women's Health.

12: Times House Republicans have voted for bills attacking women's health care so far this Congress. (2016 Vote #53, 2016 Vote #6, 2015 Vote #568, 2015 Vote #538, 2015 Vote #527, 2015 Vote #524, 2015 Vote #506, 2015 Vote #505, 2015 Vote #223, 2015 Vote #194, 2015 Vote #93, 2015 Vote #45)

ZERO: Comprehensive immigration reform bills brought to the floor by House Republican leaders this Congress

59: Closed rules so far in this Republican Congress that limit debate and forbid amendments to bills when they are considered on the floor

48: Closed rules in the first session of 114th Congress alone making it the Most Closed Session of Congress in history

10: Times the House GOP has voted so far this Congress to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act (2016 Vote #53, 2016 Vote #6, 2015 Vote #568, 2015 Vote #376, 2015 Vote #375, 2015 Vote #183, 2015 Vote #142, 2015 Vote #58, 2015 Vote #45, 2015 Vote #14)

63: Times House Republicans have voted to repeal or undermine the ACA since 2011

100:Percent of House Republicans who voted against bringing up the student loan refinancing bill

241: Republicans voted against protecting America's servicemembers and veterans from unscrupulous mortgage lenders' dishonest financial practices

99: Percent of House Republicans who voted to allow predatory lenders on military bases

241: Republicans who voted against bringing the Help Hire Our Heroes Act – a bill to provide training resources for veterans seeking good-paying jobs – to the floor for a vote

79: Days House Republicans let key components of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act – which provides health care to the heroes of 9/11 – lapse

95: Percent of Committees in the Republican Congress chaired by men

6: Times House GOP voted against a robust long-term transportation and infrastructure bill, paid for, in part, by stopping companies from renouncing their U.S. citizenship to avoid paying their fair share of taxes at home (2016 Vote #157, 2015 Vote #470; 2015 Vote #450, 2015 Vote #440, 2015 Vote #438, 2015 Vote #4)

$251 million:Cut to Amtrak funding passed by House Republican members of the Appropriations Committee one day after a deadly train accident in Philadelphia

6: Times GOP voted against bringing a clean bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security to a vote even as a shutdown loomed (2015 Vote #100, 2015 Vote #92, 2015 Vote #86, 2015 Vote #77, 2015 Vote #71, 2015 Vote #34)

1.5 million: Number of private-sector jobs created or sustained by Export-Import Bank since 2007

128: Days House Republicans let the charter for the EX-IM Bank lapse, killing jobs and undermining economic growth, before finally passing a House transportation bill that included an EX-IM Bank reauthorization

8: Times House Republicans voted against renewing the job-creating Export-Import Bank (2015 Vote #529, 2015 Vote #521, 2015 Vote #497, 2015 Vote #483, 2015 Vote #379, 2015 Vote #371, 2015 Vote #126,  2015 Vote #116)

218: Total number of Democrats and Republicans who signed a discharge petition forcing a vote to reauthorize the EX-IM Bank

313:Number of Democrats and Republicans who voted YES on passing the Kirk-Heitkamp bill to reauthorize the EX-IM Bank, after the House GOP Leadership spent months blocking this legislation from getting to the Floor

$269 billion: Tax breaks over 10 years House Republicans have passed for the wealthiest 0.2 percent of Americans in the country – 5,400 estates a year