Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, yet somehow, it’s like that really doesn’t matter. Congress is still painfully dysfunctional, and the minority party seems to have too much power to send things grinding to a halt. So it’s hardly surprising that congressional disapproval just tied a record.
A new Gallup poll released this week shows congressional approval cratered to just 10% — barely clinging above the all-time low of 9% — while disapproval surged to 86%, tying the all-time record. The only question is whether Congress has any intention of doing something about it.
Does it even care?
Of course, context matters. When the 119th Congress was sworn in last year, approval sat at 17%. It actually climbed — hitting a peak of 31% in March 2025 — as Republicans rode a wave of optimism into the new administration. We were gonna get things done, right?
Not really. What we got was a bunch of whiny Democrats who couldn’t handle the fact that they lost in 2024, and we got the longest federal government shutdown in American history as a result. Approval then collapsed, and it hasn't recovered. It settled into the low-to-mid teens and has since slid further, down to 10% in this new poll.
Gallup's own analysts note that three of the five peaks in congressional disapproval since 1974 coincided with a government shutdown or the threat of one. The current DHS funding impasse, now in its 10th week, fits squarely in that pattern. It's almost as if Americans have no patience for such impasses. And frankly, they shouldn’t.
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But here's what's particularly striking about the partisan breakdown. Republicans are driving the recent decline. After surging to 63% approval of Congress in March 2025, Republican support cratered as the shutdown dragged on, which makes sense given Republicans’ negative views of Congress.
What good is a majority when the minority party can hold everything hostage?
You know, it’s one thing when the minority can block controversial legislation, like when Democrats attempted to ram through the Freedom to Vote Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the For the People Act. Taken together, those bills would have mandated universal mail-in voting, allowed ballots to be accepted long after Election Day, implemented automatic voter registration, allowed felons to vote, and abolished the Electoral College. That’s codifying a system designed for fraud, to keep them in power permanently. Republicans were able to prevent those terrible bills from being passed.
The SAVE America Act, however, would merely require proof of citizenship to register to vote, a photo ID to vote, and place commonsense limits on vote-by-mail. It's straightforward, and it's popular. When a bill with clear majority support can't get across the finish line, Congress doesn't just look ineffective — it looks broken. There's no better symbol of institutional gridlock than a popular piece of legislation sitting on a shelf while leadership reshuffles the deck chairs.
Republicans have been trying to find workarounds without success so far, and frankly, they’re not doing what they were elected to do, and that’s why no one likes Congress right now.
