New US congress opens, vows to rescue economy

WASHINGTON – The US Capitol building rang loud with vows to fix the crisis-ridden economy Tuesday as Congress opened for business at the dawn of a new Democratic era.

“We need action and we need action now,” said the leader of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Republicans agreed, and pledged cooperation in Congress as well as with President-elect Barack Obama – to a point.

On a day largely devoted to ceremony, new members of Congress and those newly re-elected swore to defend the US Constitution.

The Senate galleries were crowded; children and grandchildren of lawmakers squirmed in their seats in the House chamber as the winners in last November’s elections claimed their prizes.

One office-seeker was not among them.

In a scripted bit of political theater, Democrat Roland Burris of Illinois was informed he would not be seated because his paperwork was not in order. He pledged a lawsuit, the latest twist in a political drama that began when he was named to Obama’s Senate seat by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has been charged with having attempted to sell the appointment.

Obama was across town in a meeting with his economic advisers as the opening gavels fell in the House and Senate at noon. His inauguration as the nation’s first black president is two weeks away.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a veteran of numerous battles with President George W. Bush, made plain how glad he was the old administration was winding down.

“We are ready to answer the call of the American people by putting the past eight years behind us and delivering the change that our country desperately needs,” he said on the Senate floor.

“We are grateful to begin anew with a far more robust Democratic majority.”

At the same time, in comments directed at Republicans, he said, “we are in this together” when it comes to the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care and the country’s energy needs.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, replied in a speech of his own, saying, “The opportunities for cooperation are numerous.” He said Democrats should avoid a “reckless rush to meet an arbitrary deadline” to pass an economic stimulus bill that could reach $1 trillion, and he outlined possible changes in the approach Obama and the Democratic congressional leaders have been considering.

Among them was a proposal to cut taxes by 10 percent. Another was to lend money to hard-pressed state governments rather than give it to them. “States will be far less likely to spend it frivolously” in that case, he said.

By the new political calculus, McConnell will soon be the most powerful Republican in government after elections that handed Democrats the White House and left them with gains of at least seven seats in the Senate and 21 in the House.

McConnell’s counterpart in the House, Republican leader John Boehner, handed the speaker’s gavel to Pelosi in a traditional unity tableau. He, too, pledged cooperation, then said, “America’s potential is unlimited. But government’s potential is not. We must not confuse the two.”

Obama spent much of Monday in the Capitol building, conferring with Republicans and Democrats alike on the economic stimulus measure he hopes to sign early in his term. The nation’s consumer spending has plummeted, manufacturing has withered and job losses have grown in recent months, adding urgency to the legislative effort in contrast to the customary sluggish start to a new Congress.

Speech-making and celebrations aside, House Democrats pushed through a series of rules changes, including one that calls for greater disclosure of earmarks.

They also repealed the six-year term limit for committee chairman. It was a legacy of the Republican Revolution that swept through Congress in 1994, and in erasing it, Democrats evinced confidence in the strength of their majority status.

In all, 34 senators were sworn in, and apart from the controversy involving Burris, one other Senate seat was in limbo.

Democrat Al Franken holds a 225-vote lead over former Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota, a result certified on Monday by the state Canvassing Board. He has not yet received a certificate of election, and with Republicans threatening to protest, Democrats made no attempt to seat him. - AP