Congress mired in low approval ratings

Gallup reported early Thursday that congressional approval ratings stayed below 20 percent for the eighth year in a row, with an average of 19 percent of Americans saying they approved of Congress in 2017.

The 2017 approval rating is a slight improvement from last year’s annual average, which showed Congress’s average approval rating at 17 percent in 2016. 

Seventeen percent of respondents said they approved of Congress in Gallup’s monthly poll earlier this month, signaling an improvement from the 13 percent of respondents who said they approved in November. 

{mosads}The 2017 survey showed a 28 percent congressional approval rating among Republicans, marking the highest rating since 2006, when the GOP also controlled Congress and the White House. 

Only 13 percent of Democrats, on the other hand, approved of the job Congress is doing. 

House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday reached a deal on tax reform, marking the first major piece of legislation that could be passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President Trump. 

The president has said he wants to sign a final bill by Christmas. 

Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration struggled to pass major pieces of legislation in 2017. 

Republicans failed multiple times earlier this year to make good on their seven-year campaign promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare. 

The monthly Gallup poll was conducted from Dec. 4 to 11 among 1,049 adults, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.