Factor	Increase
Housing Cost	536% increase in home sale prices (1980 to Q4 2025)
Rent (median)	31% of income spent of rent (2024)
Healthcare	18% of US GDP (2024) more than other wealthy countries.
Childcare	Costs more than public college tuition (38 states)
Wages	Wages have grown far less than each factor that drive the cost of living.

Cost	Problem
Housing	Home Prices: Median U.S. home sale prices rose from $63,700 in 1980 to $405,300 in Q4 2025. An increase of about 536% Rent Burden: The median renter spent 31% of income on gross rent in 2023. Healthcare Burden on the Economy: National health spending reached 18.0% of GDP in 2024.
Healthcare	In 2024, U.S. health spending reached 18.0% of GDP. U.S. per-person healthcare spending remained roughly double that of comparable wealthy countries. January 1980 to 2006, the national CPI measure for medical care rose about 728%.
Childcare/College	Childcare is one of the largest expenses many families face and now exceeds public college tuition in 38 states and Washington, D.C.
Rent	In 2024, the median renter spent 31% of income on gross rent. Since January 1980, the national CPI measure for rent of primary residence rose about 469%.
Productivity vs Pay	From 1979 Q4 to 2025 Q4, productivity rose 92.4% Typical worker pay rose 33.6%.
Cost Trend	Since 1980, standard national measures show rent, medical care, and tuition/childcare costs rising far faster than wages, though exact percentages vary by series.
Living Expenses	Average annual expenditures were $78,535 per consumer unit in 2024.

Immigration Metrics

A congressional performance dashboard that compares legislative activity and immigration-system outcomes against clear requirements: secure borders, lawful process, due process, humane treatment, workforce needs, family stability, measurable accountability, and data transparency.

Snapshot Date: Latest available local data will be shown when the JSON files are present.

Immigration Metrics Dashboard

Executive Summary

This dashboard measures whether Congress and the immigration system are producing practical, measurable results: lawful border management, timely processing, fair adjudication, workforce stability, family stability, data transparency, and due-process protection. It is designed to separate measurable performance from political noise so citizens can see where the system is working, where it is failing, and where Congress should legislate, fund, oversee, or require public reporting.

Congressional Work: This measure tracks bills, sponsorships, cosponsorships, votes, hearings, oversight, funding, and enacted laws. It is used to determine whether Congress is doing measurable work that aligns with the immigration requirements rather than relying on speeches or symbolic activity.

System Results: This measure tracks backlogs, processing speed, lawful entry, border management, integration, workforce needs, and transparency. It is used to determine whether public outcomes are improving and whether legislation is producing operational results.

Rights and Due Process: This measure tracks legal access, detention review, error correction, complaint handling, wrongful-detention risk, erroneous-removal risk, and civil-liberties safeguards. It is used to ensure enforcement performance is measured together with constitutional protection and human consequences.

System Score Summary

Overall Score	—	Grade	—	Last Refreshed	—
Scored Metrics	—	Pending Metrics	—	Points Earned	—
Data Quality	—	Info Metrics	—	History Points	—

Top Dashboard Metrics

Metric	Current Value	Meaning
Issue	Immigration	Requirement-based congressional and system-performance scoring.
Bills Reviewed	--	Bills classified to this issue by the report-card ETL.
Members Assessed	--	Senators and Representatives scored for measurable issue activity.
Average Grade	--	Average grade based on overall score for the selected filters.

Loading local dashboard data. If data files are not present yet, starter metrics will be shown.

Live Immigration System Metrics

This section adds operational immigration-system metrics to the congressional report card. Together, they show both legislative performance and practical outcomes.

Legend

Status	Meaning
Good	Metric is scored and performing well.
Watch	Metric is scored and below target.
Needs Data	Metric is defined, but current source integration is incomplete.
Info	Context metric or trend indicator.

History Points	—	Current Grade	—	Current Score	—
Score Change	—	Pending Metrics	—	Snapshot	—

Domain Summary

Domain	Score	Status	Scored Metrics	Pending	Points Used

How To Read This Page

Use Actual for the current reported value and Target for the benchmark or desired direction.

Score is calculated only when enough data exists. Method explains whether the figure is direct, computed, proxy, context, or pending source integration. Source identifies the official or reputable public source used for the metric.

Requirement Domains

Immigration performance should be measured against what the country actually needs. These domains can be connected to bill tags, budget items, hearings, agency performance data, and member report-card scoring.

Domain	Requirement	Metric Connection

Congressional Performance Summary

This summary focuses on legislative performance: whether Congress is doing useful work on immigration, whether that work is moving forward, and whether it aligns with the requirements.

Metric	Value	Meaning

Member Leaderboard

Members are scored by engagement, progress, outcome, and overall requirement alignment. This table reads local JSON exported from the report-card ETL.

Rank	Member	State	Chamber	Party	Engagement	Progress	Outcome	Overall	Grade

Status of Immigration Legislation

This table summarizes where immigration-related bills are in the legislative process. A healthy Congress should show meaningful movement beyond bill introduction and referral.

Status Bucket	Bills	Interpretation

Scoring Method

Score Component	What It Measures	Evidence Examples
Engagement	Whether a member did measurable work.	Sponsorship, cosponsorship, votes, hearings, oversight, amendments, constituent-facing activity.
Progress	Whether legislation moved through the process.	Committee action, markup, reports, calendar placement, chamber passage, conference action.
Outcome	Whether work produced enforceable results.	Enacted law, funding, oversight requirements, implementation, public reporting, measurable agency change.
Requirement Alignment	Whether the action addresses the actual immigration requirements.	Secure lawful entry, faster processing, due process, civil liberties, family stability, workforce needs, data transparency.
Grades	A through F based on overall score.	A = strong measurable action; B = useful progress; C = partial action; D = minimal useful action; F = no meaningful action or action contrary to requirements.

References and Data Sources

The dashboard should rely on official government data where available, supplemented by reputable public datasets when official recurring data are incomplete.

Source	Use on Page	Reference
Congress.gov API / Library of Congress	Bill text, bill summaries, sponsors, cosponsors, actions, subjects, and legislative status.	https://api.congress.gov/
U.S. House Clerk	House roll-call votes and chamber activity when vote-level scoring is added.	https://clerk.house.gov/Votes
U.S. Senate	Senate roll-call votes and chamber activity when vote-level scoring is added.	https://www.senate.gov/legislative/votes_new.htm
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services	Processing times, backlog data, naturalization, work authorization, and immigration-benefit performance metrics.	https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies
U.S. Customs and Border Protection	Border encounters, lawful port-of-entry measures, inadmissibility, and operational border-management context.	https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats
Executive Office for Immigration Review	Immigration court backlog, pending cases, case completions, adjudication activity, and due-process-related court metrics.	https://www.justice.gov/eoir/statistical-year-book
DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics	Immigration yearbook data, lawful permanent residence, temporary admissions, enforcement actions, and long-term trends.	https://ohss.dhs.gov/
DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties	Civil-rights complaint handling, detention conditions oversight, civil-liberties safeguards, and due-process accountability.	https://www.dhs.gov/office-civil-rights-and-civil-liberties
Local Voice to Congress JSON	Website-facing exports generated by the local ETL and metrics scripts.	data/issues/immigration_2025_summary.json; data/leaderboards/immigration_2025_leaderboard.json; data/metrics_current.json; data/metrics_trends.json

Housing	Increased housing supply. Reform restrictive zoning laws.
Healthcare	Allow prescription drug price negotiation. Increase price transparency.
Competition	Strengthen antitrust enforcement. Reduce excessive market concentration.
Families	Expand childcare support. Strengthen child tax credits.
Economic Stability	Invest in infrastructure and productivity. Encourage wage growth through competitive labor markets.

Cost of Living

What We Have

What We Want

What You Can Do

Countries Top Ranked for Best Cost of Living

The Problems

Cost of Living Growth vs Wage Growth 1980-2025