WASHINGTON — In a year unlike any other, there was no shortage of history-making moments within the halls of Congress in 2025.
From record-long speeches, voting sessions, and a government shutdown to a higher-than-usual number of resignations and retirements, lawmakers have been adjusting to a new atmosphere in Washington, D.C., under the second Trump administration. Here’s a snapshot of all the historical moments in Congress this year.
Longest government shutdown
Among the most obvious historical events in Congress this year is the 43-day shutdown that shattered the previous record for longest lapse in federal funding set during the first Trump presidency.
Not only was it the longest shutdown in history, but it also marked the first time in seven years that the entire federal government was closed as no appropriations bills were approved.
The six-week impasse left thousands of government workers without pay and even pushed dozens of congressional staffers to apply for loans or dip into their savings accounts to pay for their monthly expenses, as the Deseret News previously reported. At least 670,000 workers across the country were furloughed for the shutdown period, while another 730,000 who were deemed essential worked without pay, according to CBS News.
The shutdown itself likely cost the country billions of dollars, according to early estimates, resulting in a temporary GDP decline. The economy gradually rebounded after reopening, but the Congressional Budget Office estimated there would still be some effects felt in the bigger picture.
In all, the Senate voted 15 times on a bill to reopen the government, only becoming successful on the last vote, when eight Democrats crossed party lines to support the spending package.
Record voting sessions
The first year of the 119th Congress was a busy one, especially for the Senate that stacked its schedule with mostly five-day work weeks — a schedule that has become more rare in recent years.
With that busy schedule, the Senate ended up voting more than it did during the first year of President Joe Biden’s term, according to data compiled by C-SPAN.
The Senate had a particularly busy session in the early summer, voting on President Donald Trump’s massive tax package, during which lawmakers held a record-breaking session known as a vote-a-rama.
Senators completed 45 amendment and procedural votes during that session, marking the most consecutive votes recorded during a Senate meeting. The session itself lasted 26 hours, making it the longest in history.
Low legislative output
Despite the record-breaking voting sessions, Congress itself had a relatively unproductive year.
Lawmakers passed fewer than 40 bills that were signed into law this year, one of the lowest outputs during the first year of a presidency in modern history. The House was particularly unbusy, casting just 362 votes this year — the lowest number in the first session of a two-year Congress in the last 25 years.
Much of that could be attributed to the House’s prolonged recess during the shutdown when House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., kept lawmakers out of session for nearly two months until the Senate voted to reopen the government.
Retirements and resignations
Getting tired of all these stats yet? You’re apparently not alone, as members of Congress are retiring and leaving office at a record pace.
As of Friday, 46 House members have announced they will retire or run for another office. That number is split between 20 Democrats and 26 Republicans, putting pressure on GOP leaders to replace their outgoing members to defend their slim majority.
No other odd year has had such a high number of House retirements, according to C-SPAN, and there’s likely more retirements to come — making it possible for Congress to notch another record.
Nine senators won’t seek reelection either, including four Democrats and five Republicans.
Breaking the norms
Throughout the year, lawmakers executed a number of rarely-used procedural moves to change how Congress works — making history in between.
One of those rule changes took place in mid-September when the Senate “went nuclear,” a term referring to a maneuver that allows senators to change rules with only a simple majority vote rather than the typical requirement of overcoming a filibuster with three-fifths approval (60 votes). The process had not been invoked since 2019, but Republicans used the procedure to alter a decades-old rule to package nominations together to expedite their appointments.
We also saw Democrats take advantage of procedural norms, most notably by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., when he broke the record for longest Senate speech in history — speaking for 25 hours and five minutes to protest the Trump administration.
On the House side, members have become more emboldened to work around leadership and force votes on legislation that top House Republicans have sought to avoid.
Lawmakers can do that through a discharge petition, which lets rank-and-file members force leaders to schedule a vote on legislation so long as 218 members sign on. The procedure has been around for decades but it’s very rarely been successful — until now.
Over the last two years, seven of these petitions have received the 218 signatures necessary to force a vote. Four of those came in 2025 alone.
Before that, only seven petitions ever got the required signatures in the last 40 years combined.
And the petitions themselves brought forth historical legislation — including a bill forcing the Justice Department to release its materials from investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, ending a yearslong battle to make those records public. The DOJ is currently working on publishing those files.
