WASHINGTON – A new and traditionally mixed Congress takes place on Sunday with the Senate undetermined, a still raging COVID-19 pandemic and scars left after two brutal years of sour partisanship.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, will swear in new and re-elected members on Sunday in their locker room in the United States Capitol. .
The 117th Congress is the most varied to date, with at least 121 women and 124 more people of color fit to take office.
But the new Congress, no matter what it looks like, faces tough challenges. With vaccines in distribution, you are tasked with lifting the United States out of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed thousands of people, closed businesses and disrupted daily life in the United States. He will have to work with a new president but familiar with Joe Biden, lead a country that has racial conflicts and assistance to heal divisions after a fierce presidential election and the turbulent tenure of President Donald Trump.
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Attempts to pass a relief bill in December encountered a wall of partisan acrimony as lawmakers struggled to pass a stimulus bill. These fights followed months of fighting for relief as COVID cases rose and other people were left without work.
Among the first schedules of the new Congress: Give the last stamp of approval to the presidency of Biden. Trump continues to claim baselessly that the election robbed him, despite dozens of unsuccessful legal efforts and his own Justice Department claiming the election is legitimate. On Wednesday, the new Chamber and Senate meet to count and vote on the effects of the Electoral College.
Usually symbolic, this year several members of Congress have threatened to oppose the electoral vote recount of some states. A dozen Republican senators in consultation and an incoming and outgoing plan to oppose the certification for election effects on Wednesday. The plan has drawn strong complaints from other Republican senators such as Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who called it a “blatant ploy” that “dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic. “
His objections are to reverse the effects in any state, as majorities in the House and Senate are expected to agree to exclude them, but the resulting debate will cast more doubts among Republicans about the effects of the election. it can darken the first weeks of the congressional session.
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This Congress will have another appointment with the White House than under the Trump administration. Unlike the incumbent president, who was a political outsider when he arrived in Washington 4 years ago, Biden has close appointments with many leaders from his 36 years as a Delaware senator and 8 years as vice president. His cordial date with House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be put to the test as he tries to push Democratic policies through Congress. But partisan divisions in either chamber have hardened in the 4 years since Biden’s last public service.
Both will have tighter majorities this time.
The Democrats will return with reduced merit in the House, the fruit of electoral defeats and several members who left to join the Biden administration.
Once Representatives Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and Deb Haaland of New Mexico resign from office in the White House, there will be 219 Democrats in the House, giving them one of the slimmest majorities in the House in decades. and it can limit Biden’s ability to pass legislation in the House.
On the other side of the Capitol, Republicans controlled to cope with the tough demanding situations of Democrats running for the Senate across the country on Election Day. But there is a chance that Republicans will lose their majority if two liberal rivals topple the incumbent Republicans in the very important Georgia Senate election on Tuesday.
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Both sides invested money and effort to win the election, where incumbent Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue take on Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Even if Loeffler and Perdue do protect their seats, Republicans will have less merit in the Senate, which will make moderate lawmakers a huge facet if Biden is to pass a law in the Senate.
The day, a formal event in which members and their families greet the Speaker of the House and pose for a photo, has been particularly modified to take precautions against COVID-19 as instances continue to rise across the country.
Lawmakers plan to observe a moment of silence for the late Representative-elect Luke Letlow, R-La. , Who died of COVID-19 headaches last week.
All family circle members traveling with elected members will be required to show a copy of their negative COVID-19 check prior to travel, and new members only get one price ticket for one guest to minimize the number of other people on Capitol Hill. .
Representative Elect Sara Jacobs, Democrat of California, a first-term member of San Diego, told USA TODAY that she was “really excited and honored” to be on Capitol Hill for her swearing in, even though the latest Democratic recruit the elegance of the Room “smaller than we expected”. She planned to wear a mask all day and had brought her father as her only guest.
Whatever the final composition of the Congress party, it will be the most varied Congress yet, with representation gains on both sides of the aisle.
Among the ancient firsts of acting:
This is also expected to be the last term of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. In mid-November, she told reporters that she would likely stick to an agreement to restrict the terms of the Democratic leaders that she reached with the progressives to win them in 2018.
“I don’t need to undermine my influence, but I did make this statement,” he said.
With a smaller Democratic majority in the House, you can only lose a handful of Democratic votes. He lost 15 Democratic votes when it was implemented for the task in 2019. But Pelosi expressed his confidence in a letter Sunday morning to his fellow Democrats.
“I am sure that the election of the president today will show a united democratic group in a position to face the difficult situations that lie ahead,” she wrote.
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