House Speaker Paul Ryan shakes hands with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi after being reelected. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg[/caption]
The Republican-controlled 115th Congress was sworn in Tuesday and remained at the center of domestic and foreign news throughout the week.
The dramatic term began when Republican members agreed Tuesday, before the new Congress was sworn in, to weaken the ethics office, an independent watchdog established in 2008. GOP members later reversed course on the decision after pushback from President-elect Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, independent watch groups and others.
Later Tuesday Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan won reelection as House speaker with a vote of 239-189, a sign of party unification as Republicans took control of both chambers of Congress.
“The people have given us unified government—and it wasn’t because they were feeling generous,” Ryan said on the House floor. “It was because they wanted results.”
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The 115th Congress is sworn in on the House floor. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call[/caption]
Obamacare came into the spotlight with the arrival of President Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Mike Pence to Capitol Hill Wednesday. Both men met with members of their respective parties to discuss the future of the law. Obama urged Congressional Democrats to defend the law, while Pence vowed Republicans would “repeal and replace Obamacare,” a familiar GOP mantra and campaign promise.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday. Clapper defended his colleagues’ findings that Russian agents interfered in the election, disagreeing with comments from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Trump, both of whom questioned the intelligence community’s findings.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, chairman of the committee, said Russia’s actions should alarm “every American,” a sentiment echoed by the committee’s Democratic members.
“There is no national security interest more vital to the United States of America than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference,” McCain said in his opening statement. “That is why Congress must set partisanship aside, follow the facts, and work together to devise comprehensive solutions to deter, defend against, and, when necessary, respond to foreign cyberattacks.”
A declassified intelligence report released Friday said Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered an influence campaign” aimed at aiding a Trump win.
And earlier Friday news broke that Trump’s preference is for Congress to fund a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said Mexico would pay for the wall between the two countries. Trump defended the shift Friday, saying a move in Congress would expedite the situation and that the U.S. would be “paid back by Mexico later!”
Obamacare, Russian hacking and the wall are expected to remain in the national conversation in the lead-up to Trump’s inauguration and during his first months in office as the president-elect and the new Congress navigate their relationship and push an agenda.
Use Flipboard to keep up with the latest developments on Capitol Hill and at the White House before and after inauguration.
