After the November 2022 midterm elections, Republicans retook the House with a narrow margin of 222-213, which is the first time that this party has been in the majority since 2019.
The Democrats expanded their senate majority by one seat making the Senate split with 49 Democrats as well as the two Independents that caucus with them and 49 Republicans.
This marks the first time since 2013 that the legislative branch of the government has been split with a Republican House and a Democratic Senate.
The 118th Congress began with an event that has not occurred in the House of Representatives for a century. For the first time since 1923, it took multiple ballots to elect a Speaker of the House.
Republican Kevin McCarthy, who represents California’s 20th congressional district eventually won the election to become Speaker of the House after 15 ballots were cast spread out over a four day election.
McCarthy’s hard road to becoming Speaker of the House occurred after several far-right members of the Republican Party initially opposed his nomination.
However, after McCarthy made several concessions to appease these members, they all supported him or voted present which lowered the number of votes needed to obtain a majority.
Some of the new rules that will be enacted for this Congress include allowing just one House member to call for the removal of the Speaker. This would lead to a full House vote. This tactic has only been used once and that was in 1910.
Another rule includes limits to both short-term and long-term spending as well as making income tax increases require a three-fifths majority to pass the House. This means that 261 House members would have to vote for the increase rather than the normal 218 majority.
The rules package also eliminated proxy voting and required a minimum of 72 hours, or three days, to read bills before they can come to the floor for a vote.
A new sub-committee on COVID was also established as well as new changes to the House Ethics committee.
The ethics committee has now established term limits as well as limiting the hiring of staff for this committee to the first 30 days of Congress. A new bipartisan task force will be established out of the committee with the purpose of examining the house’s ethics rules.
House Democrat Hakeem Jefferies, who represents New York’s 8th congressional district, made history earlier this month by becoming the first African-American to be the leader of the two major parties in Congress.
Jefferies was elected to succeed incumbent Democratic party leader Nancy Pelosi after she stepped down as leader at the end of the 117th Congress.
In the Senate, Patty Murrary of Washington became the first woman and new President Pro-Tempore of the Senate. Murray is the second longest serving Democrat in the Senate but was elected after Dianne Feinstein of California declined the role.
Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, also became the longest-serving party leader in the Senate.
Many bills have already been proposed in both the House and the Senate. Some of these bills include No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2023 and the Illegal Alien NICS Alert Act
Other bills include the Fair Tax Act and the Washington D.C. Admissions Act
Since the legislative government is split between two parties, major bills that are more partisan-leaning will have a harder time getting passed through both chambers as well as being signed into law by the executive branch.
