House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urges Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to pass $ 2,000 stimulus checks on Americans during weekly Capitol Hill press conference in Washington, DC, USA on December 30, 2020.
Leah Millis | Reuters
The House re-elected Nancy Pelosi as speaker on Sunday, extending the Democrat’s second term at the helm of the House.
Pelosi, the only woman to serve as a speaker, will keep the job for the fourth quarter. The 80-year-old regained the hammer in 2019 after eight years of Republican control. California minority leader Kevin McCarthy will lead the Republican Party for a second term.
Pelosi got 216 votes, while McCarthy received 209. Five Democrats did not support Pelosi. Three voted “present,” one backing Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., and another backing Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.
The California Democrat leads a smaller majority after the Republican Party bounced back at least 10 seats in the 2020 election. His party entered Sunday with about 222 members, four more than the 218 needed for a majority in the plenary.
Pelosi and President-elect Joe Biden will try to address issues such as coronavirus relief, health care and infrastructure in the new Congress. Tuesday’s second-round election in Georgia, which will decide whether Republicans own the Senate, will determine how much the couple can achieve.
Before speaking in the House on Sunday, Pelosi raised his speaker’s hammer to applaud the Democrats. He cited the end of the coronavirus pandemic as “our most urgent priority.”
“And we will defeat him,” he said.
Pelosi and Biden have said they will push for another round of pandemic relief in the coming weeks. They described the $ 900 billion package subscribed last month as a down payment. Pelosi on Sunday called for help for state and local government, a provision that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Has opposed.
He added that the House should work with Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to “pursue justice: economic justice, health justice, racial justice, environmental and climate justice.”
Pelosi has insisted that his party’s loss of seats will not reduce leverage or force him to change strategy. She has said the election of Biden, who will take office on Jan. 20, gives Democrats more power over the next two years.
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