The 117th Congress sworn in Sunday; Pelosi reelected as House speaker
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks about the late Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, R-La., during a news conference Wednesday Dec. 30, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Letlow died Tuesday after battling COVID-19. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
By: Associated Press and Scripps National
Posted at 11:07 AM, Jan 03, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-03 16:58:49-05
The 117th U.S. Congress is beginning after the House and Senate gaveled in to swear in new members.
Both chambers held rare Sunday sessions to open the new Congress on Jan. 3, as the Constitution requires. All members of the House and roughly one-third of the Senate will be sworn in.
More Republicans Reject Effort to Disrupt Biden’s Certification Bloomberg 1/3/2021 Josh Wingrove, Daniel Flatley and Erik Wasson
(Bloomberg) More Republicans criticized efforts by members of their own party to oppose certification of Donald Trump’s election loss in this week’s joint session of Congress, a plan the president has greeted with enthusiasm.
Representative Liz Cheney, third-ranked Republican in the House, wrote in a memo to colleagues that a “dangerous precedent” was at hand as lawmakers bid “to steal states’ explicit constitutional responsibility for choosing the President and bestowing it instead on Congress.”
Earlier, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, said the proposal announced on Saturday to demand a commission to immediately audit vote counts in several states won by Democrat Joe Biden “has zero chance of becoming reality.”