House committee meetings fell 75% from 1979–80 to 2023–24

Source. Brookings, Vital Statistics on Congress, Tables 6-1 and 6-2

Method and data

Method. Meetings are as counted by Brookings. House counts for the 84th–88th Congresses omit the Appropriations Committee (Table 6-1 note c). Only the Senate table’s note c says its figure includes all hearings and business meetings (Table 6-2); the House table does not define a meeting. House meetings per panel step down at the 107th Congress, from 30.2 to 19.4, and Brookings does not say whether counting rules changed. The Senate fell 70% over the same period (3,790 to 1,134).

Congress	Years	House meetings	Senate meetings	Total meetings
84	1955-1956	3,210	2,607	5,817
85	1957-1958	3,750	2,748	6,498
86	1959-1960	3,059	2,271	5,330
87	1961-1962	3,402	2,532	5,934
88	1963-1964	3,596	2,493	6,089
89	1965-1966	4,367	2,889	7,256
90	1967-1968	4,386	2,892	7,278
91	1969-1971	5,066	3,264	8,330
92	1971-1972	5,114	3,559	8,673
93	1973-1974	5,888	4,067	9,955
94	1975-1976	6,975	4,265	11,240
95	1977-1978	7,896	3,960	11,856
96	1979-1980	7,033	3,790	10,823
97	1981-1982	6,078	3,236	9,314
98	1983-1984	5,661	2,471	8,132
99	1985-1986	5,272	2,373	7,645
100	1987-1988	5,388	2,493	7,881
101	1989-1990	5,305	2,340	7,645
102	1991-1992	5,152	2,039	7,191
103	1993-1994	4,304	2,043	6,347
104	1995-1996	3,796	1,601	5,397
105	1997-1998	3,624	1,954	5,578
106	1999-2000	3,347	1,862	5,209
107	2001-2002	2,254	1,605	3,859
108	2003-2004	2,135	1,506	3,641
109	2005-2006	2,492	1,513	4,005
110	2007-2008	2,949	2,458	5,407
111	2009-2010	2,426	2,374	4,800
112	2011-2012	2,524	1,577	4,101
113	2013-2014	2,307	1,559	3,866
114	2015-2016	2,112	1,595	3,707
115	2017-2018	1,841	1,633	3,474
116	2019-2020	1,845	1,200	3,045
117	2021-2022	1,714	1,470	3,184
118	2023-2024	1,741	1,134	2,875

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