With more than twice the work force and seven times the money, Congress produces about the same volume of legislation it did 20 years ago.

After the close of each two-year session, a box score in the Congressional Record summarizes such items as the number of days, hours and minutes the Senate and House met and the number of bills introduced and enacted.

The box score consists strictly of numbers; thus, it omits a great deal about any Congressional session and the complexity of the issues faced. But the numbers have remained remarkably stable over the years.

In 1977, the first year of the 95th Congress, 15,386 bills were introduced and 1,320 were passed. This year 6,927 measures were introduced and 1,648 passed, some of them holdovers from the previous year.

In the 85th Congress in 1957, 14,013 measures were introduced, and there were 6,591 more in the next year. The totals for bills and resolutions that passed were 2,408 in 1957 and 2,718 in 1958.

In one area, the 95th Congress clearly outstripped the 85th: Its members talked more. In the two years that the 95th Congress was in session, the Senate met for a total of 2,510 hours and the House for 1,897 hours. The record of those sessions filled 66,573 pages. In the 85th Congress the Senate was in session for 1,875 hours and the House for 1,148 hours. Their proceedings filled 33,402 pages of the Congressional Record.