Pillory Congress all you want as do-nothing or dysfunctional, as its critics often have. But in one respect, lawmakers in the Capitol are remarkably productive: they name post offices like nobody’s business.

A new report from the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research division of Congress, found that about 20 percent of laws passed in recent years were for naming post offices.

As Congress has become less and less efficient, the numbers are all the more striking. In the 111th Congress, which met from 2009 to 2010, members passed 383 statutes, 70 of which named post offices. In the 112th Congress, the last Congress to meet before the current one convened in January, members passed 46 measures naming post offices, out of 240 statutes over all.

The report notes that many of the post offices were named for officials of local renown. But others were named for better-known figures like Ronald Reagan (three times), Gerald R. Ford (twice), Bob Hope, Nat King Cole and Mickey Mantle.

Many have been dedicated to soldiers who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One post office in Louisville, Ky., was named to honor all local residents who have died in those conflicts. It is called the Iraq and Afghanistan Fallen Military Heroes of Louisville Memorial Post Office Building.

The House, where most of the measures naming post offices originate, has evidently become somewhat self-conscious about the amount of time it spends on the issue. So for this Congress, the 113th, the House committee that oversees the issue produced new guidelines that direct members to consider such bills expeditiously “so as to minimize the time spent.”

Passing these bills has become routine, and it is usually done without much debate or dissent. The practice has been to get all members of a state’s delegation to agree on a post office dedication before moving the bill to the floor.

There are other restrictions as well. Post offices cannot carry the names of people who are living, with the exception of former presidents, vice presidents and elected officials over 70.

The process is relatively inexpensive, a fact that helps explain why it has become so common in a Congress that is averse to anything that could be considered remotely wasteful. “There is no change in the way renamed post offices are identified in the U.S.P.S.’s listings of post offices,” the report notes.

Renaming plaques, which cost between $250 and $500, are bought at the expense of the United States Postal Service. The service also has responsibility for any ceremonial costs. Those are also kept tight.

“The protocol includes inviting the honored individual and his or her family,” the report says, “an honor guard, a religious figure for an invocation, media notification, and light refreshments such as cake and punch.”