Ryan promises to be bold in a time of change
Updated 2:30 p.m.: House Speaker Paul Ryan says his message to the American people is that “we hear you, we will do right by you and we will deliver.”
Ryan was speaking in the House chamber after winning election Tuesday to serve his first full term as speaker. Ryan says Americans have been looking to Washington for leadership but all they’ve gotten is condescension.
Ryan says it’s time not to be timid. He says: “You can feel the winds of change.”
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says House Democrats will seek common ground with Republicans when they can on issues such as investing in the nation’s infrastructure and making sure taxes and foreign trade are fair to worker. She says Democrats will stand their ground on attempts to harm Medicare, Social Security or the Affordable Care Act.
Ryan easily defeats Pelosi
Updated 1:53 a.m.: Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has been re-elected to serve as speaker of the House of Representatives during the 115th Congress, gaining 239 votes.
Ryan, 46, will serve his first full term as speaker after succeeding John Boehner in October 2015. Tuesday’s vote comes with little of the drama that accompanied Boehner’s election two years ago when 25 House Republicans voted for someone other than Boehner.
Ryan will lead the GOP charge to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance law and cut taxes and regulation.
Democrats nominated Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California for speaker. She received 189 votes and will serve as House minority leader. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio gained two votes, while Reps. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, John Lewis of Georgia and Daniel Webster each gained a vote.
Senate GOP start process to repeal Obamacare
Updated 1:40 p.m.: Senate Republicans have already introduced legislation that’s a precursor to repealing much of the Affordable Care Act.
Successful passage of the measure would allow a detailed follow-up repeal bill to pass through Congress without fear of a filibuster by Senate Democrats. Tuesday’s measure doesn’t contain any policy language.
Repealing President Barack Obama’s signature health care law is the top priority of President-elect Donald Trump and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill.
The measure directs top congressional committees to cast votes to assemble the repeal legislation by Jan. 27. That means there’s no time for trying to add legislation to replace so-called Obamacare.
The measure is officially called a budget resolution. Senate debate begins this week and the House is likely to follow next week.
Tillerson confirmation hearings scheduled for next week
Updated 12:45 p.m.: The Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says confirmation hearings for Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, will begin next week. The hearings are expected to last two days.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee says the first session with Tillerson, the Exxon Mobile CEO, is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 11, with a follow-up hearing on the afternoon of Jan. 12.
Corker says he was meeting with Tillerson Tuesday afternoon. Corker says the committee will receive very soon a detailed financial disclosure statement from Tillerson, who worked at Exxon Mobil for 43 years.
Biden swears in new U.S. Senate
Updated 12:40 p.m.: The New Senate has been sworn in.
Seven new members of the Senate joined those who won re-election in receiving the oath of office from Vice President Joe Biden. Biden is the president of the Senate until Donald Trump becomes president Jan. 20. Then Mike Pence will take over.
Each senator was joined at the dais by current and former senators. They then took their new desks and chatted with fellow lawmakers.
There are two new Republican senators and five Democrats. The Republicans are Indiana Sen. Todd Young and Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy. The Democrats are Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Duckworth, a double-amputee Iraq war vet, walked to the dais and stood for the oath.
Dick Cheney, Leon Panetta attend opening session of Congress
Updated 12:25 p.m.: Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are among those attending the opening session of the 115th Congress.
Cheney’s daughter, Liz Cheney, was sworn in Tuesday to Wyoming’s lone House seat, which her father also held before becoming defense secretary and later vice president.
Panetta’s son Jimmy Panetta captured a California seat once held by his father, who later became CIA director and defense secretary.
U.S. House and U.S. Sentate is in session
Updated noon: The 115th Congress has been gaveled into session. The House convened at noon Tuesday, with 241 Republicans and 194 Democrats. Among the members are 52 freshmen.
Lawmakers will soon vote on who will serve as House speaker with Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., expected to win his first full term as speaker. They will then participate in a swearing-in ceremony.
The festive opening included dozens of children, dressed in their Sunday finest, sitting in the House chamber to watch the ceremony. Among the guests were former Vice President Dick Cheney, who is watching his daughter Liz, take the oath of office as the representative for Wyoming.
Republicans are focused on repealing President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance law, rolling back regulations and cutting taxes. They’ll have an easier go of it in the House, with Democrats looking to the Senate to block legislation they view as unpalatable.___
Updated 10:11 a.m.: President-elect Donald Trump is questioning the move by House Republicans to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, arguing that tax reform and health care should be higher priorities.
In two tweets on Tuesday, Trump reacted to the closed-door vote of Republicans to put the independent OCE under the auspices of the lawmaker-run House Ethics Committee.
Trump’s first tweet said, “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it.”
He followed up with a second that said. “Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS”
“DTS” stands for “drain the swamp.”
The House is slated to vote on Tuesday on the rules changes.
House GOP plans to show support for Israel
Updated 9:30 a.m.: Senior House Republicans say a vote is scheduled for Thursday on a measure that reaffirms U.S. support for Israel after the Obama administration refused to veto a United Nations resolution criticizing the Middle East ally on settlements.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the administration “has lost all credibility when it comes to Israel.”
Secretary of State John Kerry said in a speech last month that the U.S. was standing up for a two-state solution when it abstained on the resolution, which declares the settlements on the West Bank and east Jerusalem a violation of international law.
McCarthy and Royce called the abstention a “stunt” that “hurt our ally Israel and made peace in the region even more difficult to achieve.”
Schumer warns against a ‘Twitter presidency’
Updated 7:00 a.m.: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is pledging to hold President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to account — and warning against a “Twitter presidency.”
The New Yorker says Senate Democrats will hold Trump to his promise to “Make America Great Again” — as long as that means creating jobs, raising incomes, giving real opportunities to the disadvantaged and protecting civil rights.
But Schumer says, “We’ll fight him tooth and nail when he appeals to the baser instincts that diminish America and its greatness.”
The newly elevated Senate Democratic leader says the issues confronting America are so complex that “we cannot tweet them away.”
Schumer’s comments come in prepared remarks he is delivering later Tuesday as Congress convenes for its first session of 2017.
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