Most Bipartisan Moments in Modern American History

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A Southern Democratic filibuster was broken only because Senate Republicans supplied the decisive votes, turning LBJ's arm-twisting and Everett Dirksen's floor leadership into the template for how big, painful change gets made in America. It remains the gold standard against whic

Year: 1964Senate Vote: 73-27House Vote: 289-126Bipartisan Spirit: 9/10Lasting Impact: 10/10

added by IJRin 3 rankingsCivil Rights Act of 1964

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Coming a year after the Civil Rights Act, this bill passed with even wider margins as Republicans and Northern Democrats jointly dismantled Jim Crow's ballot-box machinery. Its near-unanimous House and Senate totals show a Congress briefly acting as one body against a shared mora

Year: 1965Senate Vote: 77-19House Vote: 328-74Bipartisan Spirit: 9/10Lasting Impact: 10/10

added by IJRin 3 rankingsVoting Rights Act of 1965

Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)

George H.W. Bush signed a sweeping civil-rights expansion that sailed through Congress with overwhelming support from both parties, proof that disability rights had become one of the few issues nobody wanted to be seen opposing. Senator Bob Dole, himself disabled by a war wound,

Year: 1990Senate Vote: 91-6House Vote: 377-28Bipartisan Spirit: 9.5/10Lasting Impact: 9/10

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Congress Singing 'God Bless America' (Sept. 11, 2001)

Hours after the towers fell, shell-shocked members of both parties stood shoulder to shoulder on the Capitol steps and spontaneously sang together, a raw, unscripted image of unity that no piece of legislation ever quite matched. It didn't produce a law, but it produced the emoti

Year: 2001Senate Vote: —House Vote: —Bipartisan Spirit: 10/10Lasting Impact: 5/10

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CARES Act (2020)

As COVID-19 shut down the economy overnight, a Republican Senate, Democratic House, and Trump White House hammered out a $2 trillion rescue package in days, passing the Senate unanimously. It's the closest modern Washington has come to wartime-style consensus spending.

Year: 2020Senate Vote: 96-0House Vote: voice voteBipartisan Spirit: 9.5/10Lasting Impact: 8/10

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Social Security Amendments of 1983

Facing imminent trust-fund insolvency, Ronald Reagan and Speaker Tip O'Neill—ideological opposites who genuinely liked each other—used a bipartisan commission to broker a grand bargain of tax hikes and benefit tweaks. It's the last time Washington fixed Social Security's finances

Year: 1983Senate Vote: 58-14House Vote: 243-102Bipartisan Spirit: 8.5/10Lasting Impact: 8/10

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No Child Left Behind Act (2001)

Liberal lion Ted Kennedy and conservative George W. Bush became unlikely co-authors of a sweeping education overhaul built on standardized testing and accountability. Its later unpopularity on both left and right doesn't erase how strange and genuine the original Kennedy-Bush all

Year: 2001Senate Vote: 87-10House Vote: 384-45Bipartisan Spirit: 8.5/10Lasting Impact: 6/10

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USA PATRIOT Act (2001)

Passed six weeks after 9/11 with barely a dissenting vote, the Act showed a Congress united by fear and resolve, even as its surveillance provisions would later become a rare source of bipartisan regret from libertarian Republicans and civil-liberties Democrats alike. The unity w

Year: 2001Senate Vote: 98-1House Vote: 357-66Bipartisan Spirit: 8/10Lasting Impact: 7.5/10

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Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986)

Reagan signed a deal trading amnesty for roughly three million undocumented immigrants in exchange for promised employer sanctions and border enforcement, brokered by lawmakers like Alan Simpson and Romano Mazzoli from opposite parties. Both sides now cite its unfulfilled enforce

Year: 1986Senate Vote: 63-24House Vote: 238-173Bipartisan Spirit: 7.5/10Lasting Impact: 6.5/10

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Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (1996)

Bill Clinton triangulated with a Republican Congress led by Newt Gingrich to 'end welfare as we know it,' a deal neither side's base fully loved but both leaderships needed politically. It stands as the signature achievement of the Clinton-era bipartisan center that barely exists

Year: 1996Senate Vote: 78-21House Vote: 328-101Bipartisan Spirit: 7/10Lasting Impact: 7.5/10

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Family and Medical Leave Act (1993)

After Republican vetoes killed it twice under Bush, a new Democratic Congress and Bill Clinton finally passed guaranteed unpaid family leave with solid GOP crossover support, showing an idea can become bipartisan once it survives long enough. It remains the baseline federal leave

Year: 1993Senate Vote: 71-27House Vote: 265-163Bipartisan Spirit: 7/10Lasting Impact: 7/10

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Balanced Budget Act (1997)

Clinton and a Republican Congress under Gingrich and Trent Lott struck a deal that balanced the federal budget for the first time in decades while creating CHIP, the children's health insurance program. It's the odd case of fiscal conservatives and a Democratic president jointly

Year: 1997Senate Vote: 85-15House Vote: 346-85Bipartisan Spirit: 8/10Lasting Impact: 6.5/10

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TARP / Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (2008)

With the financial system in freefall, a lame-duck Bush administration and a Democratic Congress pushed through a $700 billion bank bailout that most members hated politically but passed anyway to prevent collapse. Both parties later ran against their own vote, but the crisis-for

Year: 2008Senate Vote: 74-25House Vote: 263-171Bipartisan Spirit: 6/10Lasting Impact: 8/10

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Budget Control Act (2011)

Facing a debt-ceiling standoff and possible default, Obama and House Republicans under John Boehner cobbled together a deal built on an automatic 'sequester' neither side actually wanted, betting the threat of mutual pain would force a later grand bargain. The bargain never came,

Year: 2011Senate Vote: 74-26House Vote: 269-161Bipartisan Spirit: 6.5/10Lasting Impact: 6/10

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First Step Act (2018)

In the middle of the Trump presidency's polarization, criminal justice reformers from Van Jones to Jared Kushner to Chuck Grassley pushed through sentencing and prison reforms that shrank federal incarceration with broad support from both parties. It's the rare Trump-era law that

Year: 2018Senate Vote: 87-12House Vote: 358-36Bipartisan Spirit: 8.5/10Lasting Impact: 7/10

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Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021)

A group of ten Senate Republicans and Joe Biden negotiated a trillion-dollar roads-and-bridges package while progressives grumbled it wasn't big enough and conservatives grumbled it was a Trojan horse—yet it passed anyway with real crossover votes in both chambers. It showed old-

Year: 2021Senate Vote: 69-30House Vote: 228-206Bipartisan Spirit: 7/10Lasting Impact: 7.5/10

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CHIPS and Science Act (2022)

Fear of Chinese technological dominance united enough Republicans and Democrats to pour roughly $52 billion into domestic semiconductor manufacturing, a rare case of industrial policy earning conservative votes. National security anxiety proved a more durable glue than shared ide

Year: 2022Senate Vote: 64-33House Vote: 243-187Bipartisan Spirit: 6.5/10Lasting Impact: 7/10

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Respect for Marriage Act (2022)

After the Dobbs decision raised fears the Supreme Court might revisit same-sex marriage, twelve Senate Republicans crossed over to federally protect marriage equality, a stunning reversal from a party that fought it a decade earlier. It's a case study in how fast 'unthinkable' bi

Year: 2022Senate Vote: 61-36House Vote: 258-169Bipartisan Spirit: 6/10Lasting Impact: 6.5/10

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