Congressional job approval at highest point since 2009: Gallup

Congressional job approval ratings are the highest they have been in over a decade, according to a new poll released by Gallup.

Just more than one-third of Americans surveyed — 35 percent — approve of job Congress is doing, a 10-point increase from January. Gallup noted this is the highest approval rating for Congress since early 2009 when it stood at 39 percent.

The survey released Tuesday was conducted from Feb. 3 to Feb. 18 as the second Senate impeachment trial of former President Trump took place and just a few weeks after the House voted to impeach him a second time. Trump was acquitted in the upper chamber.

Congressional approval ratings have surged among Democrats in the past month, according to Gallup, with 61 percent giving positive reviews in the latest survey. This is a rise of 50 points since December. At the same time, approval ratings among independents have doubled from 16 percent to 33 percent.

Democrats control both houses of Congress and Gallup points out that a similar jump in approval ratings was observed among Republicans in 2017 when Trump assumed office and the GOP had control of both the House and Senate.

“Congress is enjoying its highest level of public support in more than a decade, largely because Democrats appear pleased with its ability to carry out a Democratic agenda,” the Gallup report reads. “But independents are also more approving of Congress than they typically are, while Republican approval has fallen to levels similar to that of Democrats when the GOP controlled the federal government in 2017 and 2018.”

For the survey 1,021 adults living in the U.S. were interviewed with the results having a margin of error of 4 percentage points.