110th Congress (January 4, 2007)

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January 4, 2007 - [[110th Congress (week {{{week}}})\|week {{{week}}}]]
110th - United States Congress

Senate Majority Leader	Harry Reid
Speaker of the House	Nancy Pelosi
Previous	109th Congress
Next	January 5, 2007

This is the daily summary of the actions in 110th United States Congress as a whole, for January 4, 2007 during [[110th Congress (week {{{week}}})|week {{{week}}}]] of the 1st term of this Congress.

1 Congressional Daily Summary
- 1.1 In the Senate
- 1.2 In the House
2 Resources

Congressional Daily Summary

The 110th Congress began its first day swearing in and performing many of the ceremonial and pedestrian activities associated with both a new Congress and the change in control of both chambers to the Democrats. However this days activities marked numerous historic firsts in the House, the swearing in of Nancy Pelosi as first woman Speaker of the House, Keith Ellison the first Muslim and Mazie Hirono as the first buddhist members of the House.

In the Senate

The Senate began its largely perfunctory first day in the opening session of the 110th Congress with the President of the Senate, Vice-President Dick Cheney entering the certification of the newly elected and re-elected Senators of class I into the record, then in groups of three the elected Senators administered the oath of office by the Senate President.

After the swearing in of the Senators, the chamber undertook passage of a series of housekeeping Senate resolutions such as to electing Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia to the position of President Pro Tempore of the Senate, making him third in line in the presidential line of succession. A Secretary of the Senate was elected, as was a Sergeant at Arms to the Senate, Secretary for the Minority of the Senate, Senate Legal Counsel and Deputy Senate Legal Counsel.

Other housekeeping and minor rule changes in how the Senate would operate in the 110th Congress were passed, as was a minor bill re-designating the White Rocks National Recreation Area in Vermont as the "Robert T. Stafford White Rocks National Recreation Area".

The Senate then agreed that the text of S. 1, to provide greater transparency in the legislative process, be considered to have received its second reading. The Senate then adjourned until on Monday, January 8, 2006.

In the House

Traditionally at the beginning of every Congress, rules and regulations are adopted which guide procedure on the House floor and the conduct of its members. The Speaker of the House and Chairwoman Louise Slaughter of the House Rules Committee are responsible for enforcing these rules. With the Democrats assuming control of the House, they began to lay out the intial steps in order to hit the ground running with their pledged "first 100 hours" agenda with the adoption of the first two Title sections of the Rules of the House.

Title I simply saying what follows (Title II-V) are the Rules of the House for the 110th Congress and was passed unanimously. Title II is all about the ethical standards that members must maintain. It is the first and, perhaps, the most significant departure from the days of the Republican-controlled the 109th Congress, where meaningful ethics reforms hit major roadblocks. The rule changes would ban gifts from lobbyists and privately-funded trips without the pre-approval of the House Ethics Committee. It also prohibits former members from lobbying current members and puts a whole boatload of new restrictions on what lobbyists can say, do and pay for. Title II also changed the name of many of the House’s standing committees. Title II passed overwhelmingly, with Dan Burton of Indiana being the sole person not voting in favor of ethics reforms.

Several housekeeping resolutions were also passed, as well as a resolution which expressed profound sadness at the death of Gerald Ford.

Resources

References

External Links

The United States Senate - Offical Gov. Site
The United States House of Representatives - Offical Gov. Site
Recent bills introduced in Congress - THOMAS

This page was last modified 08:42, 24 January 2007 by dKosopedia user Lestatdelc. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.