--- title: Congress Approval Ratings Have Just Fallen to an Historic Low description: Just when you thought Congress’s approval ratings couldn’t get any lower—they sunk to a historic low. canonical: https://time.com/2900031/congress-approval-ratings/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-19T14:02:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:30:36.763Z article:section: Politics og:title: Congress Approval Ratings Have Just Fallen to an Historic Low og:description: Just when you thought Congress’s approval ratings couldn’t get any lower—they sunk to a historic low. og:url: https://time.com/2900031/congress-approval-ratings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta909e8ed26203479/6986985035ba6f90b5c02a97/us_congress.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3551 og:image:height: 1997 og:image:alt: State of the Union Address og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Congress Approval Ratings Have Just Fallen to an Historic Low twitter:description: Just when you thought Congress’s approval ratings couldn’t get any lower—they sunk to a historic low. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta909e8ed26203479/6986985035ba6f90b5c02a97/us_congress.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Yes, Congress' Approval Ratings Have Hit Yet Another Historic Low > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jun 19, 2014 2:02 PM UTC  President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, on January 28, 2014 in Washington. President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, on January 28, 2014 in Washington.Bill O'Leary—The Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jun 19, 2014 2:02 PM UTC Just when you thought Congress’s approval ratings couldn’t get any lower—they [sunk to another historic low](http://www.gallup.com/poll/171710/public-faith-congress-falls-again-hits-historic-low.aspx). A record-low seven percent of Americans said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday. That’s down from 10 percent in 2013 and 42 percent in 1973, the first year of the poll. As recently as the mid-2000s, that figure stood around 30%. Today, just 4 percent of Americans say they have a “great deal” of confidence and 3 percent have “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress, whose budget deadlock last fall resulted in a federal government shutdown. A third of Americans said they had “some” confidence in the legislature and another 7 percent said they had “none.” If that doesn’t sound grim enough, Gallup says the responses represent the poorest confidence levels in any U.S. institution since it began taking measure. The poll also has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, meaning the actual approval rating could be as high as 11 percent — or as low as three percent. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2900031/congress-approval-ratings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2900031/congress-approval-ratings/"},"headline":"Yes, Congress' Approval Ratings Have Hit Yet Another Historic Low","datePublished":"2014-06-19T14:02:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:30:36.763Z","description":"Nearly one in ten respondents said they had zero confidence in the legislature.","url":"https://time.com/2900031/congress-approval-ratings/","keywords":["Congress","Government"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta909e8ed26203479/6986985035ba6f90b5c02a97/us_congress.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta909e8ed26203479/6986985035ba6f90b5c02a97/us_congress.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"State of the Union Address","caption":"State of the Union Address","creditText":"Bill O'Leary—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2900031/congress-approval-ratings/","name":"Yes, Congress' Approval Ratings Have Hit Yet Another Historic Low"}}]}] ```