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WASHINGTON – Congress returns to a changing political landscape Tuesday as newly elected lawmakers arrive in Washington, parties elect new leaders and outgoing candidates vie for a final legislative sprint before the House Democrats take office.
Voters swept aside eight years of Republican control of the House in last week's elections, creating a new political dynamic that challenges President Donald Trump even before the new 116th Congress begins in January.
For their last act, the Republicans will try to keep Trump's promise to fund the border wall, which could trigger a partial closure of the federal government in weeks. The newly emboldened Democrats are unwilling to cooperate to make money. Instead, they will lobby to protect special prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe against Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who has criticized the investigation into Russia's interference in the state of the United States. 2016 election. All parties must agree to a federal funding bill to prevent the partial closure of government by the government on December 7.
"Democrats in the House are anything but lame ducks," Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi wrote Monday to his colleagues, saying the Democrats "were flying high and were proud" of the country 's largest democratic movement since l'. election of Watergate in 1974. They collected at least 32 seats, with several races still undecided.
"We have a great opportunity, and therefore a great responsibility to achieve results for the American people," Pelosi wrote. Democrats "must be unified, find common ground with Republicans in their legislative commitments, but keep our position when we must."
In this context, dozens of new House lawmakers and a handful of new senators have arrived for a quick orientation meeting. They will take their official photos, meet colleagues and take what might be the most difficult vote of their early career – elect their leaders. Several new members of the Progressive Caucus of Congress held their first press conference on Monday.
"I hope we are entering a new era," said elected representative Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.
Their majority lost, Republicans in the House will begin reconstruction. Outgoing President Paul Paul Ryan will start leaving power and the next California MP Kevin McCarthy will be preferred to Conservative Representative Jim Jordan, leader of the Freedom Caucus, to win the position of new minority leader in Wednesday's presidential election. Whip GOP Steve Scalise of Louisiana should keep his place. The new representative, Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, will be in third place as chair of the conference.
"We need to change the way we operate and, in some ways, be more aggressive," Cheney said, unopposed, to the Associated Press.
Senators will also choose their leaders, but few surprises are expected. On the Democratic side, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is expected to return to the position of party leader, even though the party lost several seats in the elections.
Schumer suggested that Democrats use the lame duck session to fight to protect a special council. "People are really worried about it," Schumer told CNN.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted an "animated" lame duck session. He said that legislation to protect Mueller is "useless" because the investigation "is not threatened."
McConnell is about to take the lead of the Republicans, but the term limit moves the GOP Whip John Cornyn of Texas to second place, leaving the place to John Thune, Senator of South Dakota. Senators John Barrasso and Roy Blunt from Missouri Wyoming will complete the team and Cornyn will still have a spot at McConnell's council table.
McConnell is also trying to add a female senator to a lower executive position, seeking to address the prospect of having a list of male-only leaders in a year that has brought a record number of women to Congress.
The president's biggest leadership race is Pelosi's candidacy to the first speaker of the House of Representatives. She claims to be "100% confident" of her victory despite the public campaign led by newly elected and newly elected Democrats to remove her. The preliminary vote for Democrats in the House will take place only after Thanksgiving.
In the midst of the reshuffle of leaders, lawmakers want to complete their legislation by the end of the year, including a bill on agricultural policy and legislation reforming the treatment of sexual harassment complaints by Congress . The Senate will try to confirm more of Trump's judicial and administrative appointments, including a vote this week on Michelle Bowman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
But first, they appeared in the direction of a clash on the Trump wall, along the US-Mexico border.
Trump spent weeks ahead of the midterm elections, raising concerns over a caravan of migrants heading for the border and promised voters that Republicans would strengthen border security.
House Republicans have already approved $ 5 billion for the Trump Wall, but in the Senate, where Republicans need the support of the Democratic Party to prevent systematic obstruction, a bipartisan bill allocates $ 1.6 billion.
McCarthy increased the stakes by introducing a $ 25 billion bill that the White House wants to invest in border funds, while he was trying to strengthen the Conservatives' support in anticipation of the election of the GOP leaders.
It is unclear how Republicans will be willing to fight for the wall, as dozens of GOP legislators in the House are serving their last days in Congress after retiring or losing their presidential elections. Ryan had promised a "big fight" for the border money and McConnell said that a mini-stop might be needed to help Trump "get what he's looking for" on the wall.
Representative Nita Lowey of New York, who will chair the House Credits Committee, said the Democrats "wear our boxing gloves" to argue with Trump and other Republicans.
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the most democratic senator, told reporters on Monday that the journalist was the only one in Washington to want to close his doors.
California firefighters, police officers and other emergency responders would all be injured by a closure, he said. If the Republicans insist that "it's the wall or nothing, then they will not get anything," said Leahy.
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Associate press editors Matthew Daly, Mary Clare Jalonick, Alan Fram and Laurie Kellman in Washington contributed to this report.
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