Although control of Congress was divided between the two parties, with Republicans in charge of the House and Democrats holding a majority in the Senate, the GOP came out on top last year in terms of legislation adopted.

The 2013 session was clearly not a productive one, not with only 56 bills becoming law. But of those measures signed by President Barack Obama, only 16 were introduced by Democrats. The other 40 pieces of enacted legislation were sponsored by Republican lawmakers.

New laws in the areas of economics and public finance, energy, emergency management, taxation, water resources and development, education, and finance were exclusively authored by Republicans, according to an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation.

GOP authors also introduced the majority of bills that became law in these public policy sectors: transportation and public works, public lands and natural resources, armed forces and national security, health, and crime and law enforcement.

Only four types of bills approved by Congress were exclusively authored by Democrats: civil rights and liberties/minority issues, Congress, housing and community development, and immigration. And these were one law for each category.

The only other areas in which Democrats represented the authored the majority of laws were government operations and politics, and international affairs.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Why Congress Might Be More Productive - and Less Partisan - Than You Think (by Lee Drutman and Alexander Furnas, Sunlight Foundation)

Congress Passes Fewer than 1% of Bills Introduced in 2013 (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)