Introduction

Number of bills passed by Congress this year that have been signed into law: 58

Number of bills passed in 1948, the year President Harry Truman* assailed the “Do-Nothing Congress”: 511

Number of minutes Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spent reading Dr. Seuss‘s “Green Eggs and Ham” during a 21-hour talk-a-thon in September: 5 ½

Number of hours per day the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recommends embattled freshmen spend fundraising: 4

Amount of campaign cash all members of Congress have reported raising so far in 2013: $403,952,012

Number of seats Republicans need to pick up next year to win control of the U.S. Senate: 6

Number of currently Democratic-controlled Senate seats up in states carried in 2012 by Mitt Romney: 7

Minimum number of super PACs and hybrid super PACs that registered with the Federal Election Commission since January: 210

Number that explicitly mention Hillary Clinton in their own names: 8

Rank of New Yorkers and Californians, respectively, among donors who gave at least $200 to the main pro-Clinton super PAC between January and June: 1, 2

Amount a previously little-known California vintner poured into a pro-GOP super PAC ahead of the special Massachusetts U.S. Senate race in June: $1,700,000

Number of federal candidates to whom you may currently donate the per-cycle legal maximum of $5,200 without violating the law: 9

Number of U.S. Supreme Court justices it would take to throw out this aggregate contribution limit in a case before them: 5

Amount by which Democratic mega-donor Fred Eychaner exceeded the aggregate giving limit in 2012 after an “inadvertent error”: $1,000

Number of Fortune 100 companies that list on their websites a politician’s leadership role or committee assignments as reason to provide them financial support: 34

Number that mention a candidate’s “integrity,” “ethics” or “character”: 10

Estimated cost of the special U.S. Senate race in New Jersey conducted three weeks before the scheduled general election: $24,000,000

New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie‘s margin of victory in November over his Democratic challenger: 22 percentage points

Number of days the federal government was partially shutdown in October: 16

Number of seats Democrats need to pick up next year to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives: 17

Ratio by which Democratic-aligned super PACs out-raised their Republican counterparts from January through June: 2:1

Amount of money donated by hamburger chain White Castle to a super PAC aligned with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio: $25,000

Amount of money doled out to conservative groups by the Koch brothers-connected Center to Protect Patient Rights in 2012: $112,158,149

Date on which California campaign finance regulators announced an unusually large $1 million fine against two conservative groups in the state that failed to fully reveal their funders: Oct. 24

Date on which Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner resigned amid allegations that the agency had improperly targeted conservative nonprofits for scrutiny: Sept. 23

Date on which President Barack Obama’s two new nominees for the Federal Election Commission were confirmed: Sept. 23

Number of FEC commissioners who are still serving on the six-member commission despite their terms having expired: 4

Number of campaign bundlers Obama has nominated to serve as ambassadors since January: 23

Chance the U.S. ambassador to Ireland since 1960 has been a political appointee and not a career diplomat: 100 percent

Minimum number of incumbent GOP senators facing primary challenges next year: 7

Number of Senate and House candidates the anti-tax Club for Growth has already endorsed: 5

Number of votes Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., received to be House Speaker in January: 1

Percentage of House Republicans who voted for Amash’s amendment to limit the National Security Agency‘s surveillance ability: 40

Percentage of House Democrats who did the same: 56

Ratio of senators that voluntarily e-file their campaign finance reports: 1/6

Number of Twitter followers of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.: 1,445,268

Number of campaign finance reports Booker has e-filed this year: 0

* Correction Dec. 26, 2013, 10:45 a.m.: This post originally misidentified the U.S. president who assailed the “Do-Nothing Congress.” The Center regrets the error.