Majority of Americans say U.S. Congress doing poor or bad job

More than half of Americans, or 53 percent, say U.S. Congress is doing a poor or bad job, according to a newly-released Gallup poll.

The June 1-5 poll also found that only 13 percent of Americans say Congress's performance is good or excellent.

The latest findings are consistent with other polls about U.S. Congress in the past decade, which shows that Americans have a broadly negative view of the lawmakers.

In contrast to Congress' negative job evaluation, state and local governments earn net positive ratings, the poll found.

Americans' ratings of their respective state governments even improved slightly this year, with 37 percent rating them excellent or good, up from 31 percent in June 2015, according to the poll.

At the same time, Americans' ratings of their respective local governments also improved slightly, with 44 percent rating them excellent or good, up from 39 in last year.`

The poll showed that that Republicans remain persistently critical of Congress even as the Republican Party is now controlling both chambers of Congress.

Fifty-one percent of Republicans say Congress is doing a poor or bad job, compared to 12 percent who say it is doing an excellent or good job.

In comparison, 54 percent of Democrats say Congress is doing a poor or bad job, compared to 13 percent who say it is doing an excellent or good job.

This poll is the first in a series of Gallup reports investigating Congress' negative image. Future articles in this series will review Americans' specific criticisms of Congress as well as the factors that drive Americans' negative views of Congress, Gallup said. Enditem