Washington — The new yr brings with it a brand new Congress that’s set to convene Tuesday, kicking off two years of divided authorities and resistance for President Biden from a GOP-controlled House intent on thwarting his agenda.
The House and Senate will meet Tuesday at midday to mark the beginning of the 118th Congress, for which Democrats are sustaining their management of the higher chamber however the House might be held by a slender Republican majority. Eighty-two new members are set to be sworn in for the primary time — 47 Republicans and 36 Democrats — together with a number of who’re making historical past and one, GOP Rep.-elect George Santos of New York, who’s underneath scrutiny after he admitted to fabricating elements of his resume.
But earlier than members take their oaths of workplace, the House should elect a brand new speaker, and this yr, the vote on the House flooring is bound to be something however simple.
Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is vying for the speaker’s gavel after 4 years as minority chief, and whereas he received the nomination in a closed-door vote by the House GOP convention in November, it is unclear whether or not he has locked up the 218 votes wanted to prevail Tuesday on the House flooring.
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McCarthy met with a number of of his detractors and allies within the Speaker suite Monday night, CBS News’ Nikole Killion stories, There was no phrase on whether or not any progress was made.
Killion identified that outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s identify has formally been stripped from the workplace’s identify plate.
Facing opposition from some members of the convention’s proper flank, McCarthy has made a variety of concessions in an effort to safe their votes. But his makes an attempt to appease a few of his GOP colleagues seem to have been unsuccessful, as McCarthy remains to be going through resistance from no less than 9 House Republicans who stated his guarantees fall brief.
“At this stage, it cannot be a surprise that expressions of vague hopes reflected in far too many of the crucial points still under debate are insufficient,” 9 members and members-elect wrote in a letter on Sunday. “This is especially true with respect to Mr. McCarthy’s candidacy for speaker because the times call for radical departure from the status quo — not a continuation of past, and ongoing, Republican failures.”
McCarthy’s commitments, the group lamented, come “almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress.”
The California Republican laid out his guarantees to his re-elected and incoming GOP colleagues in a letter over the weekend, by which he notably pledged to make it simpler to set off a vote to take away the speaker from the submit, a reversal of his stance on the process referred to as the movement to vacate. Under McCarthy’s plan, any 5 Republican lawmakers can provoke a vote to oust the speaker.
A guidelines package deal put ahead by the incoming House GOP majority — formalizing McCarthy’s compromises — additionally ends proxy voting and distant committee proceedings; eliminates fines for members who do not put on masks and flout safety screenings outdoors the House flooring; and establishes a choose subcommittee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government to investigate the Biden administration’s assault on the constitutional rights of American citizens.”
For House Democrats, the 118th Congress ushers in a new era of management, with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York serving because the celebration’s chief, Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts as Democratic whip, and Rep. Pete Aguilar of California as caucus chairman.
The new class of soon-to-be lawmakers contains a number of firsts, together with Becca Balint, a Democrat who’s the primary congresswoman and brazenly homosexual particular person to symbolize Vermont, and Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida who at 25 years previous is the primary member from Generation Z.
There might be 156 House Republicans within the subsequent Congress who’ve solid doubt concerning the validity of the 2020 presidential election, together with one incoming GOP member, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, who attended former President Donald Trump’s rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, and was photographed on the Capitol throughout the riot.
While the primary two years of Mr. Biden’s first time period was marked by legislative packages delivering on Democrats’ priorities and quite a few bipartisan achievements, the second half of his first time period is prone to convey his agenda to a halt on Capitol Hill resulting from opposition from the GOP-led House.
The White House can be bracing for a wave of investigations mounted by Republican lawmakers, together with into the business dealings of Hunter Biden, Mr. Biden’s son, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Biden administration’s border insurance policies.
Anita Dunn, senior adviser to Mr. Biden, instructed “Face the Nation” after the midterm elections in November that the White House “has and will comply to comply with fair and legitimate oversight,” however criticized Republicans for advancing a political agenda.
“The president is going to be focused on the priorities of the American people,” she stated. “And we would hope that the Republicans who’ve just suffered a substantial defeat in terms of both their expectations and what historically midterm elections tend to do, would also listen to the American people, focus on the priorities of the American people.”
In the Senate, in the meantime, the place Democrats will management 51 seats to Republicans’ 49, the expanded majority makes it simpler for Mr. Biden’s nominees to maneuver via committees and to the Senate flooring.