Nancy Pelosi of California, surrounded by her grandchildren raises her right hand as Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, the longest-serving member of the House, administers the oath to Pelosi to become the Speaker of the House at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019.Carolyn Kaster/The Associated Press
The latest
- The U.S. House of Representatives passed into Democratic hands Thursday, with Nancy Pelosi of California elected as Speaker. But the legislators' chances of quickly ending the partial government shutdown are slim, with President Donald Trump still at odds with the Democrats about funding for his border wall.
- Ms. Pelosi and her Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, attended a Wednesday briefing on border security with the President, but emerged with no deal in sight. They are due to meet Mr. Trump again on Friday. But “there’s no amount of persuasion” Mr. Trump can use to get Democrats to fund his wall, for which he is seeking US$5-billion, Ms. Pelosi told reporters Thursday.
- Mr. Trump, who ran for the presidency in 2016 promising a border wall and anti-immigration policies, denounced the shutdown as “strictly politics” in a Thursday tweet accusing the Democrats of “presidential harassment” ahead of the next election in 2020.
- But the wall is only one of the issues a Democrat-controlled House will have to contend with: There’s also the new North American trade deal, health care, infrastructure and, potentially, new investigations into Mr. Trump’s business dealings and ties to Russia. Here’s a primer from Adrian Morrow, The Globe and Mail’s Washington correspondent, on what’s at stake.
Jan. 3, 2019: Members of the House of Representatives take the pledge of allegiance during the start of the 116th Congress and swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
What happened Thursday?
In last November’s midterm elections, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives were up for grabs – and Democrats ended up with a majority of them, 235 compared with the Republicans' 199, and one seat in North Carolina still undecided. Thursday is the day those representatives take their oath of office and begin the House’s 116th session.
After the members registered on the roll call, they elected a speaker, which, as expected, was Nancy Pelosi of California. By tradition, the member who’s served longest in the House (in this case, Republican Don Young of Alaska) administers the oath of office to the Speaker, who then swears in the other members. The oath reads as follows:
I, [name], do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Meanwhile in the Senate, Vice-President Mike Pence presided over the oath-taking of 29 new and elected senators. Republicans gained two seats in that chamber. (The only new senator not to be sworn in was Republican Rick Scott, who got permission to finish his term as Florida’s governor. He will be sworn in on Jan. 8, when his term ends.)
First order of business: The shutdown
Jan. 1, 2019: A closed sign is displayed at The National Archives entrance in Washington as a partial government shutdown stretches into its third week.The Associated Press
The new Democratic majority’s top priority was a pair of bills to fund the parts of the government that have been shuttered in a dispute over money for President Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico. The shutdown, which has been in effect since just before Christmas, affects some 800,000 federal employees in jobs deemed non-essential.
The first bill would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels, with US$1.3-billion for border security, through Feb. 8, while talks continue. The second is a measure made up of six other bipartisan bills – some of which have already passed the Senate – to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and others that have partly closed. They would provide money through the remainder of the fiscal year, to Sept. 30. Both bills were passed in the House on Thursday.
But Senate Republicans are reluctant to consider the House bills unless they know the President is on board. But Mr. Trump has signalled he’s in no hurry to end the shutdown, since it could impair the Democrats’ new House majority. So far, House Democrats appear largely unified in their plan to vote to reopen government without the US$5-billion Mr. Trump is demanding to build the wall. With Mr. Trump dug in over the issue, the shutdown could drag on.
Other House business
Democratic representatives Deborah Wasserman Schultz and newly Ilhan Omar sit together during the start of the swearing-in ceremony. The House is loosening its rules against wearing hats on the chamber floor to allow Ms. Omar, who is Muslim, to wear a hijab.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Laying new ground rules: The House prepared a package of new rules Thursday that sets a new tone for governing. For example, it now requires that legislation first be considered in committees before bills are brought to the floor for votes. It bans lawmakers from serving on corporate boards. And it recognizes the diversity of the new freshman class by easing a century-old rule against wearing hats on the chamber floor to allow Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who is Muslim, to wear a head scarf.
The ‘Green New Deal’: Climate change is one of several sources of friction between the established House Democrats and the freshman class. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has been critical of the leader’s plans to create a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. She prefers a panel that focuses on renewable energy investments and whose members refuse campaign donations from oil and other fossil-fuel industries. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is a proponent of a so-called Green New Deal, an economic package to address both environmental issues and economic inequality.
Many people ask what a Green New Deal entails.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 2, 2019
We are calling for a wartime-level, just economic mobilization plan to get to 100% renewable energy ASAP.
To read more, check out https://t.co/kzlXUIk0Dg - that’s our resolution text. Read Section #6 for our detailed scope & scale.
Health care: By early next week, House Democrats are expected to consider a resolution to defend the Affordable Care Act in legal proceedings after a Texas judge ruled it largely unconstitutional in a legal challenge brought by Republican attorneys-general from several states.
Campaign finance: H.R. 1, the first bill of the new House majority, is a good-government package that tackles campaign finance reforms and other issues. It will begin making its way through the newly bolstered committee process.
You’ve been served: What the Democrats can do to Trump
With control of the House, Democrats have new ways to challenge the President by issuing subpoenas and convening committee hearings. They could lead investigations into his tax returns (which, in a break from political custom, he didn’t release during the 2016 election), or possible conflicts of interest from his business dealings.
The big question is what the Democrats could do next to investigate the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Already, special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe has indicted several of Mr. Trump’s former associates, but Mr. Trump cast a shadow over the investigation’s future when he fired Jeff Sessions as attorney-general, replacing him for now with Republican loyalist Matthew Whitaker. The Democrat-controlled House committees could, for instance, call Mr. Whitaker to testify about his plans for the Mueller probe, or use subpoenas to obtain related documents and e-mails.
Mr. Trump has threatened unspecified retaliation against the Democrats if they investigate his conduct. The GOP-controlled Senate is still essential to any legislation the House wants to pass, so the Democrats will be cautious in how they use their investigative powers.
The House Democrats' nuclear option is to pursue impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump. That’s unlikely: Ms. Pelosi previously called impeachment a “divisive activity,” and Democrats were cautious about mentioning the “I” word during the 2018 midterms for fear it would backfire politically. But Ms. Pelosi refused to rule it out on Thursday. “We shouldn’t be impeaching for a political reason, and we shouldn’t avoid impeachment for a political reason.”
Analysis and commentary
Editorial: For Democrats and Republicans alike, the 2020 election will be all about Trump
Compiled by Globe staff
Associated Press, with reports from Reuters and Globe staff