Bills · 2023–2026

Popular bills that never got a vote

102 bills that a large group of lawmakers from both parties signed on to, but that never reached the House or Senate floor. Because there was never a vote, no officeholder ever had to say yes or no.

How a bill dies without a vote

  1. A member introduces it. Any member of the House or Senate can introduce a bill. Others can sign on as cosponsors to show support. Thousands of bills are introduced every Congress.1
  2. It goes to a committee. Each bill is sent to one or more committees that cover its subject. The committee chair — always from the majority party — largely decides which bills get hearings and votes. Most bills never do.1
  3. Leaders decide what reaches the floor. Even a bill a committee approves needs a spot on the schedule. In the House, the Speaker and the majority's leadership control that, largely through the Rules Committee. In the Senate, the majority leader controls the schedule, and most bills need 60 votes to end debate.1,2
  4. When the two-year Congress ends, every unfinished bill dies. Supporters have to introduce it again and start over. Some of the bills below were introduced in both 2023 and 2025.1

There are ways around leadership: in the House, a discharge petition can force a vote once a majority of members (218) sign it.3 A stalled bill's ideas can also end up inside a different bill that does get a vote, so it's worth checking a bill's related bills on Congress.gov.

Which bills are here: House bills with at least 150 sponsors and cosponsors, including at least 30 from each party; Senate bills with at least 30, including at least 10 from each party. The bill had no floor action at all, and neither did any bill Congress.gov marks as identical to it, any related bill with the same title (usually the other chamber's version) or any bill with substantially similar text; and Congress.gov doesn't show its text becoming law inside another bill. Ceremonial bills (medals, coins, renaming buildings) are left out. Counts come from Congress.gov's official bill records.

House bills

Senate bills