118th United States Congress

The 118th United States Congress is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2023, and will end on January 3, 2025, during the final two years of President Joe Biden's term in office.

In the 2022 midterm elections, the Republican Party won control of the House 222–213, taking the majority for the first time since the 115th Congress, while the Democratic Party gained one seat in the Senate, where they already had effective control, and giving them a 51–49 seat majority (with a caucus of 48 Democrats and three independents). With Republicans winning the House, the 118th Congress ended the federal government trifecta Democrats held in the 117th.

This congress also features the first female Senate president pro tempore (Patty Murray), the first Black party leader (Hakeem Jeffries) in congressional history, and the longest-serving Senate party leaders (Mitch McConnell and Dick Durbin).

The 118th Congress has been characterized as a uniquely ineffectual Congress, with its most notable events pointing towards political dysfunction. The intense gridlock, particularly in the Republican-controlled House, where the Republican Conference's majority was often undercut by internal disputes amongst its members, resulted in it passing the lowest number of laws for the first year of session since the Richard Nixon administration, and possibly ever. The unproductive session demotivated many seasoned legislators, with five committee chairs amongst the dozens declaring resignations before the end of the session, three of whom were eligible to reprise their positions if the Republican party retained their majority for 2025.

The Congress began with a multi-ballot election for Speaker of the House, which had not happened since the 68th Congress in 1923. Kevin McCarthy was eventually elected speaker on the 15th ballot. After relying on Democratic votes to get out of a debt ceiling crisis and government shutdown threats, McCarthy became the first speaker to ever be removed from the role during a legislative session on October 3, 2023. Following three failed attempts by various representatives to fill the post, on October 25, Mike Johnson was elected as speaker. Johnson would advance four more bipartisan continuing resolutions from November into March to avoid shutdowns. Congress finalized the 2024 United States federal budget on March 23, 2024, through two separate minibus packages.

Partisan disciplinary actions have also increased. With the expulsion of New York Representative George Santos from the House in December 2023 over the opposition of the Speaker, this was the first congress since the 107th in which a member was expelled, and the first ever in which a Republican was. There was also an increase of censures passed in the House, being the first congress with multiple censures since the 1983 congressional page sex scandal and the most in one year since 1870. In December 2023, House Republicans authorized an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, followed by the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas in February 2024, the first time a cabinet secretary has been the target of impeachment proceedings since William W. Belknap in 1876, and only the second such cabinet impeachment in history. The charges were dismissed by the Senate, the first time the Senate dismissed impeachment articles without trial after the reading.