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WASHINGTON — Democrats returned Representative Nancy Pelosi of California to the House speakership on Sunday for what could also be her closing time period, handing a examined chief management of the slimmest majority in virtually 20 years as Washington prepares for a brand new Democratic president.
The almost party-line vote punctuated a gap day marked extra by precaution than pomp, because the 117th Congress convened underneath the specter of a lethal pandemic and awaited a pair of Senate runoffs in Georgia that may decide management of that chamber. Several House members sick with Covid-19 missed the session altogether and others solid their votes from behind a plexiglass enclosure specifically constructed in a gallery overlooking the chamber.
Her victory signifies that after two years as President Trump’s most outspoken antagonist, Ms. Pelosi will now be chargeable for making an attempt to shepherd by means of Congress as a lot of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s agenda as doable.
“Scripture tells us that to everything, there is a season: a time for every purpose under the heavens; a time to build, a time to sow, a time to heal,” she stated in a speech after profitable the speakership. “Now is certainly a time for our nation to heal. Our most urgent priority will continue to be defeating the coronavirus. And defeat it, we will.”
It might be no simple activity. With her celebration in command of simply 222 of 435 seats, Ms. Pelosi can afford to lose solely a handful of Democrats on any given vote. Emboldened Republicans are gunning to retake the bulk in subsequent yr’s midterm elections and are in no temper to increase an olive department.
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican chief, used his personal remarks earlier than presenting Ms. Pelosi the gavel to torch Democrats’ document within the majority and successfully declare the start of the marketing campaign to wrest energy from them.
“It has been said that a house divided cannot stand,” he stated. “Well, if there is any lesson Americans have learned in the last two years, it’s this: A House distracted cannot govern.”
Many of his members had been getting ready to make use of a usually perfunctory joint session of Congress on Wednesday to make one closing, futile try to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in key swing states and hand Mr. Trump a second time period primarily based on specious claims of election fraud. The effort was destined to fail, however was sure to set a bitter tone for the yr forward.
Ms. Pelosi secured 216 votes for speaker on Sunday afternoon, maintaining defections inside her celebration to only a handful regardless of grumbling from some moderates and progressives keen for brand spanking new management.
Only 5 lawmakers in the end broke ranks: Representatives Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Jared Golden of Maine and Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania. Crucially, Ms. Pelosi received over a number of Democrats who had defected two years in the past, together with Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Kathleen Rice of New York. Many stated they took her at her phrase that this time period would almost certainly be her final.
“It’s not personal. It’s not malicious. It just represents a feeling in my district that we need more Midwestern leaders and we need a different crop that represents a broader swath of the country,” Ms. Slotkin stated in an interview.
With each chambers narrowly divided, Ms. Slotkin urged Democratic leaders to put aside messaging payments that haven’t any likelihood of changing into regulation within the coming time period and attempt to make bipartisan compromises.
Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska and the longest-serving House member, made an identical enchantment when he rose to manage the oath of workplace to Ms. Pelosi.
“I’ll be honest: I do not like what I see,” Mr. Young stated. “It’s time we hold hands and talk to one another.”
He recommended the 2 sides must “sit down and have a drink.” Ms. Pelosi stated she didn’t drink however could be completely happy to share ice cream, her favourite indulgence.
On the opposite facet of the Capitol, six new senators had been sworn in, however each events had been extra involved with the runoff elections scheduled for Tuesday. The end result may decide the destiny of Mr. Biden’s legislative objectives on local weather change, taxes and well being care; his response to the coronavirus pandemic; and his capability to fill his cupboard and influential federal judgeships.
Republicans at present have an edge, with 51 seats to Democrats’ 48. Democrats must sweep each races to attract the chamber to a tie and successfully take management when Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who would solid tiebreaking votes when wanted, is sworn in with Mr. Biden on Jan. 20.
“To say the 117th Congress convenes at a challenging time would indeed be an understatement,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, and the bulk chief, stated in short congratulatory remarks. “From political division to a deadly pandemic to adversaries around the world, the hurdles before us are many and they are serious.”
At least one, the pandemic, made itself felt instantly contained in the Capitol on Sunday. Dr. Brian P. Monahan, Congress’s attending doctor, “strongly encouraged” lawmakers in a memo beforehand “to refrain from gatherings of any kind in their office spaces,” and warned that any members of the family accompanying them might be requested to supply detrimental take a look at outcomes.
Inside the House chamber, lawmakers took their oaths of workplace and voted for speaker in small teams, fairly than all collectively within the usually boisterous corridor of the House. At one level, aides needed to press a newly elected Republican, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, to placed on a masks as required underneath House guidelines, inflicting a minor stir. The architect of the Capitol even constructed a small plexiglass enclosure with its personal air flow system in one of many galleries overlooking the chamber in order that three lawmakers in a protecting quarantine may vote in particular person with out mingling on the House flooring.
Two newly elected Republicans, Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida and David Valadao of California, missed Sunday’s swearing-in altogether as a result of they had been house sick with the virus. A 3rd, Luke Letlow of Louisiana, died final week of Covid-19 issues earlier than he might be seated to the place he received in a December runoff.
Gwen Moore, Democrat of Wisconsin, arrived to solid her vote for Ms. Pelosi recent off her personal isolation, lower than every week after she introduced she had examined constructive.
“It’s somber for sure,” stated Representative John Katko, a New York Republican who simply received re-election in a Democratic-leaning district. Mr. Katko stated he drove to Washington alone on Sunday morning, with out the corporate of his household who would usually come for a big celebration.
Still, there have been moments to rejoice. Republicans swore in 17 new ladies within the House, greater than doubling their numbers from the 116th Congress and setting a brand new high-water mark for the celebration and for the variety of ladies within the House, 122, two years after Democrats swept into energy with their very own traditionally various cohort.
“Republican women are here to work, they are here to get things done,” stated Representative Liz Cheney, the highest-ranking Republican girl, marking the achievement on the chamber flooring. “As we like to say in Wyoming, it is time to cowgirl up.”
Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.
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