Most Voters Think Democrats in Congress Will Push Major Legislation in Lame-Duck Session
Most voters think Congress should wait until the new members take office in January before tackling any major new legislation, but even more expect Democrats to try to pass major legislation anyway in the upcoming lame-duck session.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 36% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the current Congress should consider major new legislation during the lame-duck session scheduled to begin on Monday. Still, that’s up several points from surveys in July and early September.
Fifty-six percent (56%) say Congress should wait until the newly elected members take office after the first of the year. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
But with Republicans taking control of the House in January, 76% of voters think it is at least somewhat likely that House Democrats will try to pass major legislation before the newly elected members are sworn in. That includes 49% who say it is Very Likely. Just 18% think Democrats are unlikely to attempt to pass major legislation between now and the arrival of the new Congress.
However, the overall number of those who think such a move is likely is down nearly 10 points from the previous surveys, and the number who say it’s Very Likely is down even more.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on November 9-10, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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