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United States Congress

gov · in 75 videos (2007–2026)

US legislature the brothers urge viewers to pressure, from Step It Up in 2007 to calls against the telecoms in 2014; in 2013 John called it the least effective since at least the 1850s, blaming district lines.

Includes: United States Senate, United States House of Representatives

Videos by year: 2007: 2 · 2009: 1 · 2010: 2 · 2011: 6 · 2012: 8 · 2013: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2016: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2018: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2023: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2026: 3

Also known as: US Congress, Congress

Threads

Also named in the threads: Brotherhood 2.0 Book Club: each brother reads a book the other assigns (2007) · John 'attacked' by a squirrel inadequately afraid of humans, in his Washington, D.C. Thoughts from Places (2012) · Hank predicts collecting Syria's chemical weapons during the civil war would be extremely complicated (2013) · Hank asks viewers to support organizations working on net neutrality with money, time and action (2014) · Hank asks viewers to use their state's How to Vote in Every State video to register, get a sample ballot and vote (2016) · Hank's made-up 'bizarro' history of Black Friday as a lights-off Lighthouse Maintenance Day (2017)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Republican Party (15) · Donald Trump (19) · United States (34) · global health (8) · Barack Obama (11) · Montana (11) · tuberculosis (12) · climate change (6) · social media (4) · Focus Friend (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2007

  • 2007-04-13 · Friday the 13th: Step It Up! — announcement: Hank: Tomorrow is Step It Up Day, a campaign started by Bill McKibben, author of the book Hank told John to read, telling Congress that since everyone agrees there's a problem, it should act. — 00:00:58
    • Hank challenges John to attend a Step It Up event in New York and wants video of him at a rally, even a rally of one, asking Congress to step it up for 2007. — 00:01:32
  • 2007-04-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 16: Brotherhood of Traveling Shirts — John couldn't attend any Step It Up rally: instead of protesting carbon consumption he was consuming it on airplanes from San Antonio to New York, arriving after the rallies ended; he made a poster. (playful) — 00:00:00

2010

  • 2010-07-24 (said on 2010-07-23, implied) · Grammar School with Snooki — John worries that celebrating people like her instead of those who use language precisely and thoughtfully leads to really crappy discourse, on Jersey Shore or in Congress. — 00:03:10
  • 2010-08-02 · I Love Hank: Esther Day 2010 — John recalls that in 2003 some members of the US Congress, angry that France saw no link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, renamed French fries and French toast 'Freedom' in the congressional cafeteria. — 00:00:58

2011

  • 2011-01-14 · Top 5 Actual Conspiracies — Hank: The plotters chose General Smedley Butler to lead their military coup, but Butler revealed the whole plot to Congress. — 00:02:57
  • 2011-07-08 · Kill the Dollar Bill! — John: The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that replacing the $1 bill with $1 and $2 coins would save $5.5 billion over 30 years. — 00:01:30
  • 2011-08-08 (said on 2011-08-09, implied) · Hackers, Cyber crime, and a New Kind of War. — Hank also worries about the legislation meant to protect us: it will probably ruin much of what's great about the internet and will never be effective, since Congress will always be far behind the hackers. (hedged) — 00:03:09
  • 2011-08-10 · Understanding America's Debt Problem — John says the US is well above the 90% alarm threshold and Congress, in "the stupidest game of chicken ever," only barely avoided defaulting. — 00:02:13
    • John's second reason: the so-called debt crisis would almost completely be solved by not extending the Bush tax cuts, which will happen if Congress does nothing. — 00:03:09
  • 2011-11-18 · Top 5 Reasons ████ ██ ██████ — ask: Hank asks viewers to tell their senators and representatives to vote against the PROTECT IP and SOPA bills, saying copyright matters but restricting internet freedom is not the way, and to sign Avaaz's save-the-internet petition. — video description
    • The description warns that Congress's plan would let any US website be turned off at a moment's notice and push sites to censor themselves. — video description
    • Hank argues Congress will never catch real copyright infringers but will crush casual users who cover songs and make mashups, GIFs, videos, let's plays and commentaries. — video description
    • Hank says he loves and needs copyright law and doesn't want John's books stolen, but doesn't want Congress meddling with the internet. — 00:00:55
    • Hank presents his top five reasons why Congress should not be allowed to regulate the internet. — 00:01:11
  • 2011-11-21 · Old Man Narrates Young Girl — John says Hank, in his last video, correctly called the copyright measures before Congress 'a steaming hot slice of crazy'. (playful) — 00:01:24
    • John says the legislation before Congress would increase that inequality: YouTube, Google and Tumblr can afford lawyers against Viacom, he can't, and it won't stop already-illegal wholesale piracy. — 00:02:54
  • …and 3 statements more in 2011 — all statements of 2011

2012

  • 2012-01-20 · Thoughts on SOPA From New Orleans — Hank writes that the rule "don't be a dick" matters far more than any copyright reform law Congress can pass. — video description
    • The description says the internet blackout resulted in a great number of congresspeople dropping their support for SOPA and PIPA. — video description
    • Hank is extremely proud that the internet banded together, an amorphous anarchy becoming a solid block against the threat, and cast it aside. — 00:02:01
  • 2012-04-03 · Idiotic Governance: How Our Political Discourse Hurts Our Economy — John says the last five years have seen 23 short-term extensions of the FAA ticket tax, mostly because Congress fights about unions, which helps members raise money. — 00:00:47
    • John says Congress let the FAA's funding lapse over the summer, so the ticket tax could not be collected, and airlines raised prices by the exact amount of the tax, keeping the money. — 00:01:12
    • John says Congress finally passed a long-term FAA budget in February, but by then the dispute had probably cost a billion dollars. (hedged) — 00:01:42
    • John says long-term highway deals fail because they involve big numbers: Tea Party-backed Republicans oppose big spending, so rather than, say, one $250 billion bill, Congress votes for ten $30 billion bills. — 00:02:05
  • 2012-04-06 · Can I be Space President? — Hank says the people working on Webb, defending it from Congress and fighting technical problems daily, can lose sight of how amazing their work is, and he is glad to bring that home to them and the world. — 00:02:27
  • 2012-11-07 · The 51st State — Hank calls the election one for the history books: the first female amputee in Congress, first female Asian American senator, first openly gay senator, first second term for a black president, and first legalizations of recreational marijuana and gay marriage. — 00:00:00
    • Hank says granting statehood takes not 51% of the vote but two-thirds. (slip of the tongue: 51%; slip of the tongue: two thirds) — 00:02:33
  • 2012-11-09 · The Stadium of Representatives: The End of B20 Week :-( — Hank says the founders split between equal representation per state and representation by population, and compromised: a Senate equal for every state and a House apportioned by population. (playful) — 00:00:29
    • Around 1910 Congress capped the House at its then size, 435 seats, where it still is; the number isn't in the Constitution but has long been in place. — 00:01:27
  • …and 6 statements more in 2012 — all statements of 2012

2013

  • 2013-01-01 · Why Does Congress Suck? — John says the last two years saw the least effective Congress since at least the 1850s: it passed only 219 bills, almost all naming federal buildings after war heroes. — 00:00:30
    • John argues that state legislatures drawing their own congressional district lines is one of the central reasons Congress cannot do anything. (hedged) — 00:01:34
    • John says Congress was designed to be bad at doing things but has to cooperate just enough to cover the basics; it always has, but he is now a little worried. — 00:03:13
  • 2013-03-12 · Understand the Sequester (Spoiler: It's Bananas.) — John says these three programs are 45% of the budget (mandatory spending); other mandatory spending is 13% and debt interest 6%, 64% in total, leaving 36% discretionary spending allocated by Congress. — 00:00:59
    • John stresses that Congress, not the president, sets tax rates and the budget, so a resulting deficit is literally Congress's fault. — 00:02:39
    • John says sequestration does nothing about the long-term fiscal problem, since mandatory spending keeps growing: Congress answered a long-term problem with a short-term crisis it then failed to solve. — 00:04:47
  • 2013-05-31 · Optimism is Not Insane — Hank thinks we see a graph rising toward a disaster point and assume we have only years left, but usually we adapt: capitalism, technology and even Congress adapt. (hedged) — 00:02:04
  • 2013-09-13 · Syria in Five Minutes — Hank says Obama wants to enforce his red line even without UN support, Americans balk at another war, so the president has let Congress decide whether to attack. (playful) — 00:03:31
    • Hank says collecting chemical weapons from a country in civil war would be extremely complicated, but enforcing the norm against them without bombing or Congress would be an excellent outcome. — 00:04:33
  • 2013-10-01 · The Lowdown on the Shutdown — Hank says the deeper problem is that politicians redrew district lines to be ever more partisan, making elections easier to win but radicalizing districts so representatives must be uncooperative; not easy to fix. (hedged) — 00:02:01
    • Hank says that starting today about 800,000 people are out of work until Congress acts, including a very good friend of his, which makes him mad. — 00:02:51
    • Hank says no one knows how quickly it will be resolved, perhaps three days or three weeks, but it will be, because he trusts Congress wants the country to exist. — 00:02:57
  • …and 7 statements more in 2013 — all statements of 2013

2014

Also named in: The Great Goose Migration

2015

  • 2015-08-11 (said on 2015-08-10, implied) · 454 Days: Understanding America's Ridiculous Political Campaigns — John says for most of American history the president wasn't really elected democratically: most people (women, non-white people) couldn't vote, and Congress or party powers chose the candidates. — 00:01:28
  • 2015-10-23 · Benghazi: Explained — Hank says there have since been seven more investigations that found nothing new. — 00:04:31
    • Hank says the inquiry clearly went beyond partisan distrust and truth-seeking and became an active, taxpayer-funded campaign against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. — 00:04:35
    • Hank says there have been eight congressional investigations of Benghazi, six more than after September 11th, 2001. — 00:06:16
    • Hank says it seems unlikely anything more will be found and more likely the attack involved unfortunate circumstances and significant but not criminal mistakes. (hedged) — 00:06:16
  • 2015-11-24 · Crime and Outrage — John: The US government could save far more by passing a long-term highway funding bill, which Congress has failed to do for six years, but that is not narratively simple or easy to get outraged about. — 00:01:33
  • …and 1 statement more in 2015 — all statements of 2015

2016

  • 2016-01-05 · Who Owns Oregon? Some Historical Context on the so-called Militia Occupation of Public Lands — John says the Constitution explicitly gives Congress power over US territory and property, and the Supreme Court has consistently upheld federally owned and managed land. — 00:04:06
  • 2016-04-22 · Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING! — The description adds that neither candidate has a great chance of passing any significant legislation if the state of Congress remains the same. — video description
  • 2016-06-17 · Hey, Let's Change Some Things — Hank asks Tester to work in Congress for a ban on high-capacity rifle magazines and for restored CDC funding to study gun violence as a public health issue. — video description
    • Hank, who found it hard to believe, says congressional staffers agree that letters and phone calls matter more than Twitter and email because they show the constituent cares more. — 00:01:09
    • Hank also asks Congress to let the CDC study, and fund study of, the public health effects of guns. — 00:01:51
  • 2016-08-09 · Why I Didn't Vote (And Six Reasons You Might Not) — John says you're not just voting for president: down-ballot races for senators, congresspeople, state legislators and school boards are extremely important to your community. — 00:00:35
    • John recommends finding your state's sample ballot at youtube.com/howtovoteineverystate, then candidates' websites, and Ballotpedia for US Senate or Congress races (link in the doobly-doo). — 00:01:03
  • 2016-10-21 · Coming Out, Goats, Government, and Attack Ads with Denise Juneau — Hank introduces Superintendent Juneau, who is running for Congress to represent Montana. — 00:00:12
    • Denise Juneau: Juneau says running for Congress differs totally from her statewide race: bigger issues, more scrutiny, a larger microscope on you, but also a bigger megaphone. — 00:02:29
    • Denise Juneau: Juneau says coming out had political and personal reasons: people expect access to who candidates are, and running for Congress she wanted things out there, given possible negativity. (hedged) — 00:03:20
  • 2016-11-11 · The Trouble with Wishful Thinking — Hannah Hart: Hannah cautions against wishful thinking: what we thought was enough isn't, so we can't cross our fingers for a more aligned Congress in two years; the conversations must start now. — 00:03:20
  • …and 1 statement more in 2016 — all statements of 2016

2017

2018

2019

  • 2019-01-01 · How to Make Goals, Not Resolutions — John notes that a couple of weeks ago the US Congress passed a resolution reaffirming the US commitment to the Pacific Islands region. — 00:00:03
    • Much of the US federal government is not functioning because Congress cannot pass a bill to fund it. — 00:00:17
    • Like Congress's resolutions, New Year's resolutions don't require doing anything; they never last for John because they are more like dreams than goals. — 00:00:29
  • 2019-02-01 · We Have Destroyed Copyright Law — Hank calls the claiming system pretty genius: big companies that would otherwise lobby Congress to shut YouTube down get a whole new income stream instead. — 00:03:44

2020

  • 2020-10-14 · John Predicts the Future! — Hank: Instead, Hank says sarcastically, the vital topic now is Congress ramming through a Supreme Court justice rather than thinking about COVID relief. (playful) — 00:01:57

2021

2022

  • 2022-02-22 · On the Death of My Hero — John: In 2001 the head of USAID told Congress he opposed extending antiretroviral therapy to impoverished countries, saying it would fail because the drugs need a schedule and 'these people' don't know clocks. — 00:00:29
  • 2022-03-18 · How to Fix Daylight Saving Time — Hank says that if your response to bipartisan legislation that will improve your life is to find a way to be angry, the problem may be you, not Congress. (playful) — 00:01:22
    • Hank says the clocks could stay on standard or on daylight time; Congress wants daylight time and many people want standard time. — 00:01:22
  • 2022-08-12 · The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!? — Hank: With high inflation and $5 gas, no member of Congress would raise fuel costs, so the bill is nearly all carrots for clean energy and a few sticks for fossil fuels. — 00:13:31
  • 2022-08-23 · Flin Flon: One Book's Unlikely Survival — John says Flin Flon's wildly misogynistic response to the matriarchy can't really be read as satire, since he is presented as the wisest man; there's a reason Muddock isn't read. — 00:02:55
  • 2022-10-25 · Instantly Debateable — John: His most notable example is his long crusade against the US penny: he gets engagement from the idea that pennies are minted because Congress cares mostly about divisive, re-election issues. (hedged) — 00:01:56
  • 2022-10-28 · I'm Changing the Way I Think About Politics — Hank first met Monica Tranel, who is running for Congress, when he emailed her and she helped him make Hanklerfish art for Project for Awesome donors. — 00:00:00

2023

2024

  • 2024-02-27 · I Was Wrong about the Average American — John: Jessica thinks gun ownership should be more restricted and has a very low opinion of politicians, especially Congress. — 00:01:56
  • 2024-03-12 · How We End TB — John says later this week (week of 11 March 2024) he will be on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to discuss tuberculosis with members of Congress, senators and their aides. — 00:00:00
  • 2024-03-19 · Our $80,000,000 Bet — John says last week (week of 11 March 2024) he was in Washington, D.C. to ask senators and congresspeople to prioritize tuberculosis, the world's deadliest infectious disease. — 00:00:00
  • 2024-07-05 · Should I Run for President?? — Hank says government is complex: the US president manages nearly 3 million federal employees, deals with foreign leaders, sends Americans to war, leads a party and must work with 535 members of Congress from 50 states. — 00:01:27
    • Hank says the only major non-COVID legislation Trump's administration passed was one forgettable tax cut, though it had both houses of Congress for its first two years. — 00:03:28
  • 2024-08-09 · Why isn't This Illegal? — Hank explains the FTC has five commissioners nominated by presidents and approved by Congress, serving rolling seven-year terms, with no more than three from one party. — 00:03:20
  • 2024-09-27 · Is It 2010? IT'S A PARTS VIDEO — John says the act must now pass the House, and Congress struggles to pass a law these days. (playful) — 00:01:02

2025

  • 2025-02-28 · We Will Eradicate Measles — Hank says Congress legally passed the laws funding USAID's work, yet 90% of USAID's funding has been halted. — 00:06:08
    • Hank shares on screen the talking points he uses when calling his representatives so viewers can call theirs in Congress; a script, a list and ways to find them are in the description. — 00:06:56
    • In his script Hank tells his representative he believes they believe in the founding document: Congress creates laws and decides spending, and executive orders are not laws. — 00:07:27
  • 2025-04-11 (said on 2025-04-10, implied) · How Actually Crazy is This Mess? — Hank approves of Republicans in Congress saying the Constitution gives the power to levy new taxes to Congress, not the president. — 00:17:13
  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — Adam Schiff: Schiff says that power is only as good as Congress's willingness to enforce it; by letting the president ignore its appropriations Congress gives it up, which is sadly where things are now. — 00:01:33
    • Adam Schiff: Schiff says the bigger problem is that Congress could stop this but won't, because its majority shares the president's party, defeating the founders' design of setting ambition against ambition. — 00:04:06
  • 2025-06-10 · 90,000,000 Lives for $20 — John says the US Congress is deciding whether to codify $400 million in cuts to PEPFAR and $500 million in cuts to other US health aid. — 00:01:27
    • John says that if these cuts are codified in US law, it is no exaggeration to say millions of people will die. — 00:01:27
  • 2025-11-14 · The End of The Penny (and of Congress??) — Hank says Trump apparently did not need Congress: it comes down to two readings of a law requiring the Treasury to mint the coins necessary to meet the country's needs. — 00:01:25
    • Hank says Trump's Treasury declared the necessary amount zero not because Congress repealed it, the mint couldn't make them, or demand vanished, since people still want them from banks, but because the president decided. — 00:01:55
    • Hank says Trump repeatedly tests the outer boundary of executive power where statutes are vague or Congress paralyzed, recently fighting to keep people from food stamps even after a court ordered him to stop. — 00:02:53
    • Hank says Obama's view of the penny as a legislative question made sense in 2013, when Congress was still at least theoretically a law-making body, and asks whether it still is. — 00:03:22
  • …and 32 statements more in 2025 — all statements of 2025

2026

  • 2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — Hank: If he had to run for Congress, Hank would campaign on regulating away the structures that serve only to divide us and survive because they are politically useful: gerrymandering and money in politics. — 05:43:16
  • 2026-03-03 · The Best Fan Mail I Ever Received — John filmed this video in advance because next week (week of 9 March 2026) he will be in Washington, D.C., lobbying on Capitol Hill for global health and tuberculosis funding with hundreds of TB fighters. — 00:00:00
  • 2026-03-10 · Is Hank Green Running for Congress? — John: Last week (early March 2026) John was on Capitol Hill with hundreds of TB fighters from the community, meeting over 250 Senate and congressional offices about global health and tuberculosis funding and research. — 00:00:00
    • Congressional staffers kept asking John whether Hank would run; at first he thought they were kidding, then realized they seriously want Hank in Congress. (playful) — 00:00:00
    • John says that last week (week of 2 March 2026) two of Hank's elected representatives, his congressperson and one of his senators, unexpectedly retired. — 00:00:29
    • John confesses he kind of wants a brother in Congress, as people say you want a friend with a boat rather than a boat. (playful) — 00:01:38
    • John thinks Hank would be pretty good at the job: Congress could use a science communicator and global health advocate. — 00:02:07
    • John says the brothers' first question for any big professional decision is whether it would be bad for vlogbrothers, and if so they don't do it; he worries Hank in Congress might be. — 00:02:36
    • John says Congress, supposed to decide on going to war and on government spending, is doing not nearly enough of either job. — 00:04:33
    • John says it is unclear how or whether the administration will actually spend the money Congress appropriated. (unsure) — 00:05:31
  • …and 1 statement more in 2026 — all statements of 2026

Also named in other years (nothing said): Stimulus Plan Explained (2009-02-15)