New London ― U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, acknowledged Monday the frustrations of toiling in a notoriously ineffective Congress and the seeming inevitability of a Trump-Biden rematch in the upcoming presidential election.

“What I hear a lot is, ‘How can you stand it?’ ” he said during a meeting with The Day’s editorial board, referring to Washington’s dysfunction. “I’m a great believer in compartmentalization,” meaning focusing on what he can accomplish.

Courtney, who is seeking a 10th term this year, said that of the thousands of bills submitted in Congress in 2023, only 31 were enacted. Only five or six of them were of “any substance” and three or four had to do with staving off a government shutdown, he said.

The bill of greatest significance, Courtney said, was the $841 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which President Joe Biden signed late last month. In addition to continuing full funding for stepped-up submarine production at Electric Boat in Groton, it provides $647 million to bolster the submarine industrial base and a 5.2% pay raise for service members.

The NDAA includes Courtney’s proposal to extend health benefits for three years to surviving families of military personnel killed fewer than 30 days after being activated.

Courtney also cited his work on AUKUS, the agreement among Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to equip Australia with nuclear submarines. Royal Australian Navy personnel will begin training next month at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton.

“When I come home, that’s what people want to talk about ― a functioning government,” Courtney said of the defense spending bill.

Courtney notified the Federal Election Commission in January 2023 of his intention to seek re-election, shortly after Mike France, his Republican challenger in 2022, filed notice of his intention to run again.

Asked about threats to democracy, Courtney said he was confident that election certification reforms approved by Congress would prevent a repeat of the chaos surrounding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. One new provision clarifies that the vice president’s role in the certification of electors’ votes is merely ceremonial.

Courtney said he supported the election reforms as well as anti-voter suppression measures.

“The next nine months will be a test of will,” he said of the election season.

He said he has traveled to the Philippines, Japan and Taiwan, where the people still consider the United States an ally and closely monitor U.S. elections.

While former President Donald Trump’s bid for the Republican nomination may have been uncertain at some point, the 2024 presidential election now “looks like a rematch” of 2020, Courtney said.

He said Biden has done a good job laying out what’s at stake in the election and has a good record to run on. Unemployment is down, inflation is waning and energy costs have declined, he said, though housing costs “are not so great.”

“Pieces of the president’s story are pretty good,” Courtney said while acknowledging about a third of country won’t hear the president’s message. He said he believes the abortion issue will be a factor in the election, as will immigration.

Asked what his ideal immigration bill would look like, Courtney cited the so-called Dignity Act, a bipartisan proposal to strengthen border security, provide undocumented individuals with a pathway to citizenship if they meet certain requirements, and update the U.S. legal immigration system.

Courtney commented on the housing crisis in the region, saying the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program is the federal government’s biggest contribution to a solution. The program provides state and local agencies with funding to issue tax credits for the acquisition, rehabilitation or construction of affordable rental housing.

“The business community has to have a stake in it,” he said. “It’s not just about being nice to people. It’s about (housing for) workers.”

Courtney also remarked on the success of the region’s “manufacturing pipeline” that has helped prepare workers for jobs at Electric Boat. High schools are now developing similar educational pipelines and such employment areas as health care and information technology are looking into such programs.

“I’m bullish about that ― getting past the ‘everybody-has-to-go-to-college’ mentality,” he said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com