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Instead, most lawmakers will be sworn in without the company of a single guest to reduce exposure to the coronavirus, and have been told to stay in their offices except during votes. The Capitol doctor strongly warned against “gatherings of any kind”.
Even Pelosi’s election – for what could be his final round with the hammer – will lack the usual theatricality of a vote to confirm the next speaker. The vote itself is expected to take between three and four hours, with lawmakers moving around the chamber in small groups to minimize their risk for the virus.
“As we all take an oath today, we accept a responsibility as formidable and demanding as any that previous generations of leaders have faced,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to its members ahead of the swearing-in ceremony on Sunday. .
Pelosi will face its tightest margins yet, after Republicans overturned more than a dozen seats in November. The biggest threat to his hammer, however, will come from possible Democratic absences, as lawmakers are unable to vote by proxy for the president.
Pelosi told his caucus on a private call last week that his “opponent is Covid”. But the calculations did not appear to be as worrying as of Sunday morning, with Democrats anticipating only one absence on their side – Representative Alcee Hastings, who is battling pancreatic cancer. Republicans were planning two absences – elected officials David Valadao and Maria Elvira Salazar, both of whom recently tested positive for the coronavirus. Another seat will remain open: New York’s 22nd District, where the race has yet to be called between Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi and GOP contender Claudia Tenney.
“I am confident that today’s election of President will show a united Democratic caucus ready to meet the challenges ahead, and that we are ready to put our country on a new course,” Pelosi wrote in the memo to its members. .
The vote will seal Pelosi, once again in the record books, as the first woman to hold the post and the first person in six decades to regain the speaker’s hammer – now twice – after losing it.
Senate control, meanwhile, remains uncertain, with two second-round races in Georgia scheduled for Tuesday that will determine whether Mitch McConnell or Chuck Schumer will be the majority leader.
Sunday’s proceedings will open a busy week in Congress that will include a chaotic but doomed effort by Republicans to dethrone Joe Biden as president-elect.
Several GOP members, led by Alabama Representative Mo Brooks in the House and Senator Ted Cruz in the Senate, vowed to challenge those results in Trump’s last breath by nullifying Biden’s victory. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) Was the first senator to join the House GOP’s efforts to contest the election. Trump and his supporters have claimed – without evidence – that Biden won only because of “voter fraud,” but legal challenges from Trump and his allies have largely failed.
This bet will take place on Wednesday, January 6, when the Chamber and Senate meet for a joint session to officially count the votes of the Electoral College. Vice President Mike Pence will be put in the awkward position of leading the joint session. This process, which could take as little as half an hour, is now expected to drag into late Wednesday night or perhaps into the wee hours of Thursday, especially after nearly a dozen GOP senators have turned up. engaged on Saturday.
Each of the opening week processes – from the first quorum call to the Electoral College vote – will be a logistical nightmare for Capitol Hill officials tasked with protecting members during the still raging coronavirus outbreak.
Unlike much of 2020, when many House lawmakers were able to vote by proxy and limit their travel to Washington, the start of the 117th Congress will require every member to vote in person until the new rules are passed.
This means that hundreds of members will travel to Washington after spending time with their families over the holidays – likely without quarantining themselves first in DC.
The first year class will be sworn in as a group on the ground, preserving at least part of the bi-annual tradition of the House. But in a radical change from previous sessions, each newly elected member will only be entitled to one guest in the Chamber gallery on Sunday. (Returning members are not allowed.)
Congressional leaders have stepped up the coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in recent weeks, including an internal testing site that provides results within 24 hours. Yet, many lawmakers and aides are deeply concerned about the spread of the coronavirus in the vast Capitol complex.
More than 50 members and elected members have tested positive in recent months, including several hospitalized. Last Tuesday, lawmakers mourned the death of their next colleague, the elected GOP representative Luke Letlow of Louisiana, died of Covid-19 aged 41 and was only a few days old far from his swearing-in.
In all, the 117th Congress will include more than 60 incoming members of the House, including the 14 Republicans who reversed seats and helped shrink the now fragile Democrats majority.
The GOP freshman class includes a record number of women – a much needed boost after the conference only had 13 female members in the last term – as well as a mix of racial and ethnic backgrounds. Several freshmen are actually returning members: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) And Pete Sessions (R-Texas), as well as Valadao.
GOP rookie Representative-elect Mariannette Miller-Meeks will sit “provisionally” after being certified as a race winner by a margin of just six votes. Her Democratic challenger, Rita Hart, has filed a challenge in the House asking for further consideration of the race, in particular, the roughly two dozen ballots she said were unfairly excluded from the count.
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