Congress opened to mostly cheers but some jeers

[Elizabeth Baldwin Letchworth]

 

The 112^th Congress convened to hearty cheers and some jeers

The Senate and the House convened the 112^th Congress passing and adopting mostly routine housekeeping measures and conducting leadership elections.

The Senate opened to a bit of acrimony when the two leaders differed on whether the Senate rules should be changed and how to go about these rules changes without trashing 200+ years of Senate history. Senator McConnell (R-KY)  made an impassioned speech about how the Senate Democrats have abused their power by how they have legislated over the past few years.  Here is part of what the Leader said on the floor on Wednesday:

“The current majority has denied the minority its right to amend legislation a record 44 times, or more often than the last six majorities combined. It has moved to shut down debate the same day measures are considered nearly three times more often, on average, than the previous six majorities. And its unprecedented denial of the rights of the minority to debate and amend on the floor is compounded by its practice of regularly bypassing Senate committees. All too often the majority has chosen to write bills behind closed doors, depriving Americans of yet another opportunity to have a say in the legislative process. The current majority has set the record here as well, bypassing committees 43 times, or double the previous average.”

After a few more partisan speeches, the two leaders decided to postpone the war over the rules changes until Jan. 25. The Senate leaders will try to resolve this impasse between now and when the Senate reconvenes on Jan. 25.

Over on the House side, the change of leadership was more ceremonial than anything else with the election of John Boehner (R-OH) as the 53^rd Speaker of the House of Representatives. In Speaker Boehner’s acceptance speech, he reminded us that the House was: “the people’s house.” However just prior to the cordial exchange of the gavel by Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) over to Speaker Boehner the ceremonial roll call vote took place to elect the Speaker and the Minority Leader. During the roll call vote to elect Nancy Pelosi as the House Minority Leader, 19 House Democrats voted against her nomination. 11 voted for Cong. Schuler (D-NC) and eight for other members. As the votes were cast verbally as is the tradition, Cong. Pelosi’s head was seen twisting around each time she heard a vote cast against her nomination to be Minority Leader. The 19 members she lost represent 10% of the democratic membership which totals 193 members for the 112^th Congress.

By week’s end, the House will consider the rule which will govern the debate on the repeal of the health care bill. Next week, the House has scheduled consideration of the repeal resolution. This debate and vote will occur next Wednesday, Jan. 12^th.  The House will also consider a resolution that will direct three House committees to begin to write and report legislation that will replace the Health Care bill. This resolution has 12 points which the committees should address when they are writing the replace legislation. They include lowering costs of health care; protect pre-existing conditions, no money for taxpayer abortions and medical liability just to name a few.

Finally, the Senate and House will convene in the Hall of the House of Representatives to hear the State of the Union address by President Obama at 9pm on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011.

Stay tuned to read more about the House Health Care repeal actions while the Senate remains in recess until the State of the Union address.

Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, elected United States Senate Secretary for the Majority and Minority. Currently she is a senior legislative adviser for Covington & Burling, LLC and is the founder of GradeGov.com