How many discharge petitions reached 218 signatures in each Congress since 1990?
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Executive summary
A precise, Congress-by-Congress tally of how many discharge petitions reached the 218-signature threshold since 1990 cannot be produced from the reporting supplied here because no single source in the dataset provides a complete, year-by-Congress list; available sources document individual successful petitions and summarize rarity but do not enumerate every Congress [1] [2] [3]. What the record fragments do show is that successful petitions have been rare through the modern era, with notable successes in the early 1990s, 2002, 2015, and a cluster of bipartisanship-driven successes in 2024–25 [4] [1] [2] [5].
1. What the question really asks and the evidence gap
The user asks for a count per Congress (a discrete number for each two‑year Congress since 1990); the supplied sources do not include a consolidated table or CRS-style appendix enumerating each Congress’s successes, only headlines and analytical summaries that demonstrate rarity and highlight individual petitions that reached 218 signatures [1] [2] [3]. Because the House Clerk maintains the discharge petition database and the Congressional Record publishes signers, a definitive per‑Congress accounting is possible, but that primary dataset is not among the provided sources here [6].
2. Confirmed successful petitions called out in the sources
The supplied reporting and analyses identify specific Congresses and episodes in which petitions obtained 218 signatures: the Balanced Budget Amendment twice in the early 1990s (1992 and 1993) reached the threshold though it did not pass the House [4]; minimum-wage discharge efforts succeeded in 1996 (noted in analysis of past episodes) and 2006 is referenced as a separate push [6]; the McCain‑Feingold/campaign finance petition reached 218 in 2002 under a Republican majority [6] [1]; a special‑rule petition tied to reauthorizing the Export‑Import Bank obtained 218 signatures in 2015 [1] [2]; and several discharge petitions reached 218 in late 2024 and into 2025 — Axios reports “seven discharge petitions filed in the past two years” hit the 218 threshold [5], while union and advocacy outlets document specific bipartisan successes such as the Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550) and a Social Security‑related petition [7] [8] [4].
3. Pattern and political context identified by analysts
Scholars and policy shops emphasize that successful discharge petitions are the exception, typically requiring a cross‑party coalition or rank‑and‑file revolt against leadership, which explains why only a handful of petitions per decade actually reach 218 [2] [3]. CRS and AEI note that since the 104th Congress (1995–1996) only a very small number of petitions have obtained the 218‑signature threshold [1] [2], and contemporary reporting highlights that the 2023–25 period has seen an unusual uptick in successful bipartisan petitions [5] [9].
4. Why a definitive Congress‑by‑Congress count requires primary records
None of the provided secondary sources list every Congress from 1990 onward with counts of petitions that attained 218 signatures; the most reliable route to produce the requested per‑Congress tally is the House Clerk’s Discharge Petition database and the Congressional Record signatory lists (both cited in analyses but not reproduced here) — those primary records are the appropriate sources to compile an authoritative table for each Congress [6] [1].
5. Bottom line and how to get the exact numbers
Based on the supplied reporting, multiple discrete episodes are identified (early 1990s Balanced Budget petitions, 1996 minimum‑wage push, 2002 campaign finance effort, 2015 Export‑Import Bank rule, and several 2024–25 bipartisan petitions including PAWA and ACA/Subsidy efforts), but a per‑Congress numeric series since 1990 is not present in these materials and therefore cannot responsibly be asserted here without consulting the House Clerk’s discharge‑petition records and the Congressional Record [4] [1] [5] [2] [7]. Researchers seeking the requested Congress‑by‑Congress counts should query the Clerk’s discharge petition database and cross‑check each petition’s entry date against the applicable Congress to produce a verifiable table.