Pelosi wins fourth term as mayor

To win the floor, Ms. Pelosi had to have a majority of those present and roll-call voters. Democrats have 222 seats against 211 for Republicans because a race in New York is still up for grabs, and a seat in Louisiana is vacant because Republican-elect Luke Letlow died on Tuesday of Covid-19 complications.

“Nancy Pelosi believes that our sacred mission is to continue America’s long, necessary and majestic march towards a more perfect union,” said Caucus Democrat President Hakeem Jeffries (D., NY) as he appointed the speaker to the plenary of the Chamber.

Some lawmakers voted in favor of plexiglass because they had recently been exposed to the coronavirus, although they tested negative for Covid-19. Instead of meeting at the same time, the legislators of the Chamber entered the chamber in small groups for social distance.

Republicans opposed the plexiglass structure, which they said Democrats surprised them by allowing Pelosi to receive more votes for president.

“The lack of communication with the minority makes it 100% political,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, of Illinois, the top Republican on the House Management Committee. “To build a structure like this, in the darkness of the night, to protect only the votes that President Pelosi needs to be re-elected, is shameful.”

According to the Constitution, Congress begins on January 3. In the past, when Congress was scheduled to open on Sunday, lawmakers reached a bipartisan agreement to change the date. However, this year, Democrats wanted to avoid the chance for President Trump to make appointments for recess and wanted to be ready for Wednesday’s joint session to ratify Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory at the Electoral College, the formal stage end before your January 20th. Opening.

Some Republicans plan to challenge some of the states’ results on Wednesday, alleging electoral irregularities. Their objections may force debate and voting in both chambers of Congress.

Elected Congresswoman Sara Jacobs said she arrived in Washington early to quarantine and test Covid-19 before taking office on Sunday. Only new members received a ticket for a guest. Mrs. Jacobs gave hers to her father.

The California Democrat said she wanted Congress to take on another coronavirus aid package first and said her focus on opening day was “to make sure we’re celebrating the day, but also being safe and as responsible as possible.”

The new Congress will be more diverse than the previous session, with more women and more people of color. At least 118 women will serve in the United States House, breaking the previous record of 102 set in 2019. Of these, 29 are Republicans, breaking the previous GOP record of 25 set in 2006, according to an analysis by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

It is expected that it will be Ms. Pelosi’s last term as a speaker. In 2018, to gain the support of detractors, she said she would only seek a fourth and final term if she had the support of two-thirds of her bench. She ran unopposed at her conference.

“The question is, are you going to empower Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, for which the answer is no,” said congressman-elect Mondaire Jones, a New York Democrat who plans to support Pelosi. An avowed progressive and one of the first openly homosexual blacks to be elected to Congress, he said he is ready to pressure the party to accept Medicare for All and climate legislation.

Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.) Voted a gift to the speaker, saying that she told Mrs. Pelosi about her intentions after the election. In 2018, she campaigned for the desire for new leadership in Congress.

“It is important for me to keep my commitments to my district,” she told reporters. “I’ve been talking a lot about the need for more Midwestern leaders, people who represent areas like where I come from.”

Lawmakers will not be able to vote by proxy, as they did during the pandemic, until Congress approved its new package of rules on Monday. The rule pack will implement remote voting, as well as several procedural changes. A major change will be that the motion to commit again, a procedural vote that allowed the minority to amend a bill shortly before it was passed, will now send the bill back to the jurisdictional committee.

Minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy (R., California), criticized the measure, saying on Twitter that the Democratic leadership was “invoking the nuclear option to silence the voice of the people”. Democrats argue that procedural voting has become a weapon for the minority and that Republicans were not altering the bill in good faith because they often ended up voting against the final bill.

Ms. Pelosi’s home in San Francisco was vandalized at the end of last week, according to the San Francisco Chronicle and other media. Someone seemed to be leaving a pig’s head on the sidewalk in front of her house, they said. Ms. Pelosi’s office declined to comment.

The home of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, in Louisville, Ky., Has also been vandalized. “Were’s my money” was spray-painted on his door, an apparent misrepresentation of the debate over approving the sending of $ 2,000 direct checks to many Americans as financial assistance during the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms. Pelosi’s house was also spray painted with references to the $ 2,000 checks.

President Trump pressured Congress to pass legislation by sending $ 2,000 in direct checks to many Americans. McConnell indicated last week that he would not hold an autonomous Senate vote on the checks, saying that they needed to be considered with other concerns raised by Trump.

“Vandalism and the politics of fear have no place in our society,” McConnell said in a statement on Saturday. “My wife and I were never intimidated by this toxic manual. We just hope that our neighbors in Louisville are not too bothered by this radical tantrum. “

Write to Natalie Andrews at [email protected]