On July 22nd, 2024, then-President Joe Biden announced that he would be stepping out of the presidential race. Following these events, Kamala Harris would take his place as the Democratic Party nominee, with less than four months until Election Day. While this sent shockwaves through the American public, it also displayed a unique and longstanding aspect of the American election cycle: an uncharacteristically long campaign period. In many countries, such as India and South Korea, presidential bids are curtailed to 3 months or less, unlike the United States, where campaign ads can begin airing at any time and often start more than a year before Election Day (with an average of 384 days for presidential bids). The practice and normalization of prolonged campaign cycles have both social and monetary implications, ranging from the integration of campaign advertising to the polarization that surrounds the majority of the election cycle. However, the effects do not end there. One aspect of a longer campaign cycle that is seldom discussed in political science is how the election cycle model used in the United States impacts legislative action (bills voted on and bills enacted) in Congress, even though legislative action has perhaps the most significant implications for the American people of any of the factors mentioned above, proven by the rates at which American citizens assert that they are impacted by a lack of action on the part of their legislators (ACE, 2024 and Dynes, 2021). This leads to the question: How are the quantities of bills voted on, bills enacted, and executive orders signed impacted by the current year or stage of the election cycle, if at all?

          In terms of this inquiry, ‘legislative action’ will be defined by bills introduced to the legislative branch for voting, bills enacted by the legislative branch, and executive orders issued by the president. The executive election cycle will be defined as a four-year cycle beginning at Y1 (year one), when a new president enters office or a sitting president begins their second term. The legislative cycle will be defined as a two-year cycle following congressional sessions, beginning at Y1, the start of a new Congress. The present research will be the first step in correlating and quantifying the relationship between the United States' unique election system and its legislative action, aiming to discover the impact that the year of the election cycle has on three factors: legislation voted on, legislation enacted, and executive orders signed.