Ex-Lawmakers Sound Alarm on Congress Gridlock 2025 as Retirements Mount
A record wave of congressional retirements is intensifying concerns about Washington’s capacity to address national challenges. Former lawmakers from both parties now warn that America’s legislative branch has descended into what they describe as institutional paralysis.
“Congress is effectively in a coma,” said former Representative Mark Sanford (R-SC) during a bipartisan panel hosted by the Georgetown Institute for Constitutional Democracy last week. “We’ve created a system where members are incentivized to perform rather than legislate. The institution is now structured to reward those who can generate the most outrage, not results.”
The warnings come as the 119th Congress faces historically low productivity metrics amid escalating partisan tensions. According to Congressional Quarterly’s legislative tracking data, the current Congress has passed just 37 substantive bills in nine months – nearly 40% below the already diminished output of the previous session.
I’ve covered Capitol Hill for over fifteen years, and the dysfunction has never been more palpable. Walking through the Capitol basement cafeteria last Thursday, I overheard staffers from opposing parties actually agreeing on something: their bosses have essentially given up on meaningful legislation until after next year’s election cycle.
Retirement Crisis Accelerates Institutional Decline
The problem is compounding as experienced legislators head for the exits at unprecedented rates. Already, 47 House members and nine senators have announced they won’t seek re-election in 2026 – the highest mid-session exodus in over four decades.
“We’re losing the last generation of lawmakers who remember how to make deals across the aisle,” former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) told me during an extended interview in her Washington office. “When I first arrived in 2013, there were still relationships built on mutual respect. Those are virtually extinct now.”
The data supports Heitkamp’s assessment. The Lugar Center’s Bipartisan Index shows cross-party cooperation has fallen 63% since 2015, reaching its lowest level in the 50 years the metric has been tracked.
What’s particularly troubling is who’s leaving. Analysis from the Congressional Research Service shows that departing members have an average of 12.3 years of legislative experience, compared to just 4.7 years for those remaining.
Structural Problems Plague the Institution
Former lawmakers point to several institutional factors driving the gridlock.
“The committee system – where the real work of legislating happens – has been completely hollowed out,” explained former Representative Carlos Curbelo (R-FL). “Leadership now writes massive bills behind closed doors, and members are expected to vote without meaningful input or even time to read what they’re voting on.”
House rules changes have contributed significantly to the problem. According to research from the American Enterprise Institute, opportunities for floor amendments have decreased by 78% since 2010, limiting members’ ability to shape legislation.
The polarization is further reinforced by congressional district maps drawn to favor partisan extremes. Princeton University’s Gerrymandering Project director Sam Wang estimates that fewer than 40 House seats are genuinely competitive in general elections, meaning most members face greater threats from primary challengers than general election opponents.
“The real election happens in primaries dominated by each party’s base,” Wang explained. “This creates a perverse incentive structure where compromise becomes politically dangerous.”
Media Environment Accelerates Decline
During my years covering Congress, I’ve watched the media ecosystem transform how lawmakers operate. What was once committee work focused on policy details has become performance art optimized for viral moments.
“We’ve created a congressional TikTok culture,” former Representative Will Hurd (R-TX) said during the Georgetown panel. “Members now ask questions designed not to get information but to create 30-second clips they can blast out on social media.”
Metrics from the Congressional Management Foundation reveal the shift in concrete terms. The average representative now employs three full-time social media staff members – more than they typically assign to legislative policy development.
This shift toward performance over substance has real consequences. Legislative language has significantly simplified over time, according to the Sunlight Foundation’s text analysis tools, which show the average bill’s complexity has declined to an eighth-grade reading level – down from graduate-level writing that characterized major legislation of the 1960s and 1970s.
Path Forward Remains Unclear
The most troubling aspect of my reporting on this crisis is the lack of clear solutions. Structural reforms that might address the problems – like redistricting reform or changes to primary systems – face significant political obstacles.
“The public needs to understand what’s been lost,” former Speaker John Boehner told me when I interviewed him for this piece. “Congress was designed to be the forum where America’s toughest problems get hashed out. When that forum breaks down, the whole country suffers.”
Former Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH), who left Congress in 2022 after 20 years of service, offered perhaps the most sobering assessment: “We’re witnessing the slow-motion collapse of a core democratic institution. And the scariest part is how few people seem to notice or care.”
The consequences extend far beyond Washington. As Congress proves increasingly unable to address long-term challenges like immigration reform, infrastructure investment, and debt management, these problems continue to fester.
Unless significant changes occur, the gridlock plaguing Congress appears likely to worsen in 2025 and beyond, regardless of which party controls either chamber. For a nation facing mounting challenges both at home and abroad, that’s a troubling prognosis indeed.
