WASHINGTON (AP) – Three new senators were sworn in on Wednesday after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, securing a majority for Senate Democrats and a unified government to tackle the new president’s agenda at a time of unprecedented national challenges.
In an initial vote, the Senate confirmed Biden’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines. Senators worked through the evening, overcoming some Republican opposition to approve his first cabinet member, in what is traditionally a show of good faith on Inauguration Day to confirm at least some nominees for a new president’s government.
A former deputy director of the CIA, Haines becomes a core member of Biden’s security team, overseeing the agencies that make up the country’s intelligence community. She was confirmed 84-10.
The new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., urged colleagues to put the spirit of the new president’s call for unity into action.
“President Biden, we heard you loud and clear,” Schumer said in his first. ‘We have a long agenda. And we have to get it done together. ”
Vice President Kamala Harris was applauded when she entered the room to take the oath of office to the new Democratic senators – Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock and Alex Padilla – just hours after taking her own oath in the Capitol alongside Biden.
The three Democrats are joining a Senate that has reached a close 50-50 split between the parties, but gives the Democrats a majority and Harris is able to cast the tie-breaking vote.
Ossoff, a former congressional clerk and investigative reporter, and Warnock, a pastor of the late Martin Luther King Jr. Church in Atlanta, won second elections in Georgia this month, beating two Republicans. Padilla was tapped by the California governor to complete the rest of Harris’ tenure.
“America is turning a new leaf today. We’re turning the page over the past four years, we’re going to reunite the country, beat COVID-19, bring emergency economic aid to the people, ”Ossoff previously told reporters in the Capitol. “They sent us here for that.”
All told, their arrival puts Democrats in control of the Senate, House and White House for the first time in a decade as Biden faces the unparalleled challenges of the COVID-19 crisis and its economic ramifications, and the The nation’s painful political divisions from the deadly siege of the Capitol on January 6 by a mob loyal to Donald Trump.
Congress is called on to consider Biden’s proposed $ 1.9 trillion COVID recovery package from $ 1.9 trillion, to distribute vaccines and support an economy as more than 400,000 Americans have died from the virus. At the same time, the Senate is on the cusp of impeaching Trump, accused by the House of instigating the uprising in the Capitol after rioters attempted to interrupt the election college and overturn Biden’s election. The Senate will have to confirm other nominees from the Biden cabinet.
To restore “the soul” of the land, Biden said in his inaugural address, “unity” is required.
But as Washington tries to turn the page from Trump to the Biden administration, Republican leader Mitch McConnell is not relinquishing power without a fight.
Haines’ nomination was temporarily blocked by Senator Tom Cotton, R-Okla., When he sought information about the CIA’s improved interrogation program. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Holds back Alejandro Mayorkas, nominee for Homeland Security, over Biden’s proposed immigration changes.
And McConnell refuses to enter into a power-sharing deal with Senate Democrats unless they meet his demands, primarily to keep the Senate filibuster – the procedural tool often used by the minority party to block bills under 60-vote rules. to advance legislation.
McConnell said in his first speech as leader of the minority party that with limited democratic scrutiny from the House and Senate, the election results show that Americans have “deliberately entrusted significant power to both political parties.”
The Republican leader said he was looking forward to working with the new president “whenever possible.”
During her first briefing to the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden’s desire to have his cabinet confirmed and in place is “in the front and center of the president,” and said he hoped his nominees for the national security Thursday or Friday were present.
Psaki said the president will be “quite involved” in the negotiations on the COVID aid package, but left the details of the upcoming impeachment process to Congress.
The Senate can “multitask,” she said.
That’s a big deal for a senate under normal circumstances, but even more so now in the post-Trump era, with Republicans badly divided between their loyalty to the defeated president and wealthy donors distancing themselves from Republicans backing Trump.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to soon send the house-passed article of impeachment against Trump, accused of inciting insurrection, to the Senate, a move that will kick off the Senate impeachment process.
Meanwhile, power-sharing talks between Schumer and McConnell have reached an impasse.
It’s a mysterious fight that McConnell has inserted into what has traditionally been a more routine organizing resolution on committee allocations and staff resources, but a power game of the outgoing Republican leader reaching for tools that could be used to block Biden’s agenda.
Progressive and liberal Democrats are eager to lift the filibuster to advance Biden’s priorities more quickly, but not all ordinary Senate Democrats are on board. Schumer has not agreed to change, but McConnell is not taking any chances.
For now, unanimous consent from senators is needed to alternate between holding votes on legislative matters and acting as jurors in the impeachment process. The House last week accused Trump of sending the crowd to the Capitol to “fight like hell” during the electoral college’s vote to overturn Biden’s election.
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Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press author, contributed to this report.