(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Adults in the United States are particularly critical of the way the House of Representatives and the Senate are doing their job, according to a review of four recent public opinion polls. In a survey by Opinion Research Corporation released by CNN, 23 per cent of respondents approve of the way Congress is performing.

The approval rating for the U.S. legislative branch stands at 15 per cent in a study by CBS News, and 13 per cent in polls by Opinion Dynamics for Fox News and Hart/Newhouse for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News.

American voters renewed the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate in November 2006. In January 2007, the Democratic Party took control of the lower house for the first time since 1994, with 233 lawmakers. A victory for the Democratic candidates for the Senate in Montana and Virginia also gave the party a majority in the upper house. Democratic California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi became the first female speaker of the House.

Since last year, defaults on so-called subprime mortgages—credit given to high-risk borrowers—have caused volatility in domestic and financial markets and raised concerns that the U.S. economy could fall into a recession.

On Sept. 29, the House of Representatives rejected a proposal for the federal government to purchase up to $700 billion U.S. in assets from finance companies in a 228-205 vote. On Oct. 1, a modified version of the bill was approved by the Senate in a 74-25 vote.

On Oct. 9, Pelosi called for a stimulus package to create jobs, saying, "We may have to go back into session before the next Congress. We have some very harsh decisions to make and some of them can’t wait until January. What we can’t wait for is a stimulus package."

American voters will elect a new president, and renew the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate on Nov. 4.

Polling Data

a) Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?

Source: Opinion Research Corporation / CNN
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 510 American adults, conducted from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5, 2008. Margin of error is 4.5 per cent.

b) Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?

Source: CBS News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 957 American adults, conducted from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

c) Do you approve or disapprove of the job Congress is doing?

Source: Opinion Dynamics / Fox News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 900 American registered voters, conducted on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

d) In general, do you approve or disapprove of the job that Congress is doing?

Source: Hart/Newhouse / Wall Street Journal / NBC News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 658 American registered voters, conducted on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, 2008. Margin of error is 3.8 per cent.

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