Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Congress starts session; election challenge ahead
Lawmakers find chamber routines changed by covid
WASHINGTON — Congress convened Sunday for the start of a new session, swearing in lawmakers during a tumultuous period as a growing number of Republicans work to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump and as the coronavirus surges.
Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California was reelected House speaker by her party, which retains the majority in the House but with the slimmest margin in 20 years after a strong GOP performance in the November election.
Opening the Senate could be among the final acts of Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as majority leader. Republican control is in question until Tuesday’s runoff elections for two Senate seats in Georgia. The outcome will determine which party holds the chamber.
The House and Senate were required by law to convene Sunday, and they imposed strict covid-19 protocols. Elbow bumps replaced handshakes as senators took the oath of office. Fewer family members than usual joined lawmakers at the Capitol. An enclosed seating section was designed for lawmakers in quarantine but testing negative.
Veteran lawmakers, used to the joyous pomp and circumstance of a packed House floor for their swearing-in, found the safety conditions
a bit jarring.
“Real different,” said Rep. Fred Upton, R- Mich., first elected in 1986, after leaving the Capitol’s coronavirus testing site. “I just got tested, real different. I flew back last night. First time I’ve been without my family. My wife’s always up in the gallery.”
Upton recalled past swearing-in days, including one in the early 1990s when his young son was wrapped around his shoulders and their picture made the front page of USA Today. “It’s a whole different world right now,” he said.
But by day’s end, House lawmakers were hugging and congratulating one another in the crowded chamber, an alarming scene during the pandemic.
“To say the new Congress convenes at a challenging time would be an understatement,” McConnell said.
Still, he said with the start of a new year there are reasons for optimism: “Let’s make the American people proud.”
Pelosi said after accepting the gavel, “Scripture tells us that to everything, there is a season: a time for every purpose under the heavens; a time to build, a time to sow, a time to heal. Now is certainly a time for our nation to heal.”
She said the top priority is defeating the coronavirus. And “defeat it we will,” she said to applause.
ELECTION OBJECTION
But l awmake rs a re charging into the 117th Congress with the nation more torn than ever, disputing even basic facts, including that Biden won the election.
Fraud did not spoil the 2020 presidential election, according to election officials across the country. Before stepping down last month, Attorney General William Barr, a Republican appointed by Trump, said there was no evidence of fraud that affected the outcome. Arizona’s and Georgia’s Republican governors, whose states were crucial to Biden’s victory, have also stated that their results were accurate.
And Democrats have criticized some Republicans’ practice of citing doubts by voters — which they helped fuel — as a reason for further investigation. Dozens of judges, including several appointed by Trump, have summarily rejected allegations that any notable fraud occurred.
Nevertheless, a dozen Republicans in the new Senate, led by Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, and even more in the House have pledged to become a resistance force to Biden’s White House at the very outset. They plan to object to the election results when Congress meets Wednesday to tally his 306232 Electoral College victory over Trump.
Their announced challenge was met with an impassioned response from other Republican senators, who hope the party can move beyond chaos and are frustrated that GOP members would challenge a legitimate election outcome. Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., said in a blistering statement that the effort “directly undermines” Americans’ right to choose their leaders and would “disenfranchise millions of voters in my state and others.”
“The senators justify their intent by observing that there have been many allegations of fraud,” he said. “But allegations of fraud by a losing campaign cannot justify overturning an election.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called the effort to challenge the results an “egregious ploy” that “dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic.”
“I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world,” Romney said. “Has ambition so eclipsed principle?”
Hawley, the first GOP senator to announce his intent to challenge the tally, swiped back in a letter to his colleagues late Saturday accusing Toomey and others of engaging in “shameless personal attacks” and making “unfounded claims about the intentions of our fellow Senators.”
He cited what he said was skepticism among his constituents about Biden’s win. “I believe it is my responsibility as a Senator to raise their concerns in the forum allowed to members of Congress,” he said. “That’s exactly what I intend to do.”
Among the House Republican newcomers are Trump-aligned Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who was among a group of House Republicans led by Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama who visited with Trump at the White House during the holiday season about their effort to undo the election. The “Jan. 6 challenge is on,” Taylor Greene said in a tweet.
Another GOP newcomer is Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who also tweeted support for those challenging Biden’s victory.
PENCE PRESSED
Vice President Mike Pence, who as president of the Senate presides over the session and declares the winner, is facing pressure from Trump’s allies over that ceremonial role.
Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said in a statement Saturday that Pence “welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing ahead, eager to partner with Biden on shared priorities, starting with efforts to stem the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis. They plan to revisit the failed effort to boost pandemic aid to $2,000 for most people.
“This has been a moment of great challenge in the United States of America filled with trials and tribulations, but help is on the way,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Democratic caucus, said in an interview.
“America is a resilient nation, filled with resilient people,” he said. “We will continue to rise to the occasion, emerge from this pandemic and continue to march toward our more perfect union.”
House Republicans boosted their ranks in the November election, electing a handful of women and minorities, more than ever. Some of the new GOP lawmakers are being called the “Freedom Force,” and a counter to the “squad” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and other liberal Democratic women who swept to office in the last session.
In a statement, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the minority leader, said the new Republican members “are a strong representation of who America is and where we come from.”
Progressive Democrats bolstered their ranks with newcomers aligned with more liberal priorities.
The Capitol itself is a changed place under coronavirus restrictions. Lawmakers arrived in Washington from all parts of the country potentially exposed to the virus during their travel.
Several have been sickened by the virus and some were absent Sunday. A memorial was held Saturday for newly elected Republican lawmaker Luke Letlow, 41, of Louisiana, who died of complications from covid-19 days before the swearing-in.
The Office of the Attending Physician has issued several lengthy memos warning lawmakers not to meet in groups or hold traditional receptions to prevent the spread of the virus. Masks have been ordered worn at all times and Pelosi has required them in the House chamber. Members are required to have coronavirus tests and have access to vaccines.
“Do not engage any in-person social events, receptions, celebrations, or appointments, outside your family unit, and always wear a face covering outside your home,” the physician’s office warned in a memo.
PELOSI ELECTED
Pelosi, who is returning as the first woman to hold the job of speaker, faced a tight race, with the House split 222-211. In a nearly party-line vote, the California Democrat won a majority of those present and voting to retain the speaker’s gavel.
After two years as Trump’s most outspoken Democratic antagonist, Pelosi will now be responsible for trying to shepherd through Congress as much of Biden’s agenda as possible, while maintaining her party’s majority before next year’s midterm elections.
Pelosi can afford to lose only a handful of Democrats on any given vote and faces a Republican opposition empowered by its better-than-expected showing in November’s election. She will also have to contend with a health crisis that can sideline lawmakers at any moment.
In a note to Democratic lawmakers before Sunday’s speaker vote, Pelosi thanked her colleagues for confronting a challenge “as daunting and as demanding as any that previous generations of leadership have faced.”
“Each of our communities has been drastically affected by the pandemic and economic crisis: 350,000 tragic deaths, over 20 million infections, millions without jobs — a toll almost beyond comprehension,” she wrote.
Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Andrew Taylor and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press; by Mike DeBonis and Paul Kane of The Washington Post; and by Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times.