White House officials and congressional aides will meet again Sunday to continue discussions about how to end the partial government shutdown that has affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers and caused delays and inconvenience for Americans.

The shutdown has entered its third week.

The crux of the discussions is border security. President Donald Trump is adamant that he wants $5.6 billion to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico to block undocumented migrants trying to enter the U.S.

Congressional Democrats have vowed not to give the U.S. leader any money for the wall. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called the wall “immoral.”

Trump tweeted late Saturday that he is going to Camp David Sunday to discuss border security and other topics with senior staff.

About the same time he tweeted this photo:

U.S. congressional leaders and White House officials held talks Saturday in Washington in an effort to end the partial shutdown. Discussions ended a few hours later without any progress.

Senior White House adviser, and Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen were involved in the meeting Saturday, with Nielsen briefing those in attendance on border security. Democrats asked DHS for written details about the agency’s budget needs, which the White House said it would provide.

Vice President Mike Pence, who also participated in Saturday’s meeting, described the discussions as “productive” in a tweet.

Trump, however, tweeted shortly after Pence, saying, “Not much headway made today. Second meeting set for tomorrow. After so many decades, must finally and permanently fix the problems on the Southern Border!”

Pelosi said in a statement released Saturday, “The senseless uncertainty and chaos of the Trump Shutdown must end, now.”

Her statement said Democrats would “begin passing individual appropriations bills to re-open all government agencies, starting with the appropriations bill that covers the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service. This action is necessary so that the American people can receive their tax refunds on schedule.”

Trump has threatened to bypass Congress and declare a national emergency in order to get the wall built.

About 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay. This is the fourth-longest government shutdown — partial or full — in the past 40 years. The president has said he is willing to continue the shutdown “for years” until there is funding for the wall that he promised Mexico would pay for during his successful presidential campaign.

The shutdown has affected government services around the country and if it continues there could be dire consequences. Money for the food stamp program, which helps millions of low-income Americans buy food, will expire in March.

Federal income tax refunds and tax return processing will also be delayed.

Transportation Security Administration agents who screen travelers at the nation’s airports have begun calling in sick in apparent protest at being required to work without pay.

Federal courts will run out of money Jan. 11, according to the administrative office of the U.S. courts. That could delay trials. The shutdown has already resulted in the suspension of issuing marriage licenses in Washington.

The Smithsonian museums in Washington, including the National Zoo, are closed.

Late Thursday, the Democrat-controlled House passed legislation to reopen the federal government and fund the Department of Homeland Security until early February. The measure did not include the $5.6 billion the president has demanded for the border wall.

The Senate passed an identical bill last month, while Republicans still controlled both chambers of Congress.

However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week he would not put any legislation to a vote in the Senate unless Trump supported it. He called the House plan to end the shutdown “political theater.”

Democrats have said they will only discuss border security once the government is reopened.

Trump, who was not part of the negotiations, spent Saturday morning tweeting about the partial shutdown and border wall.

He also tweeted, without evidence, “I don’t care that most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats.”

Trump said, again without evidence, the 800,000 federal workers affected by the shutdown want him to “keep going” for border security.

When asked Friday about how unpaid workers are expected to manage without a financial safety net, the president replied: “The safety net is going to be having a strong border because we’re going to be safe.”
…

President Donald Trump held forth on all manner of things this past week as he emerged from a “lonely” spell over the holidays. He opined for more than 90 minutes to the press, at the top of a Cabinet meeting, on the shutdown, immigration, drug prices, the Soviet history in Afghanistan, his approval ratings, Syria, oil prices, the nature of walls, the attractiveness of his generals (“better looking than Tom Cruise”), and much more.  

 

He capped the week with a Rose Garden news conference that stretched for an hour. And he’s been tweeting a lot. 

 

Trump’s accounts did not show tremendous fealty to the facts. Here’s a sampling of what he said:  

​The wall 

 

Trump: “We’ve already built a lot of the wall.” — Rose Garden news conference Friday.

The facts: He hasn’t. 

 

Trump’s claim is only supported when counting work done under past presidents and ignoring the fact that fences from prior administrations are not the towering walls he promised. The 2006 Secure Fence Act has resulted in about 650 miles (1,050 kilometers) of border barrier. Money approved by Congress in March 2018 is to pay for 84 miles (135 km), but that work is not done. Trump has achieved some renovation of existing barrier. 

 

Trump: “The drugs are pouring into this country. They don’t go through the ports of entry. When they do, they sometimes get caught.” — Rose Garden news conference. 

 

The facts: He’s wrong in saying drug smugglers don’t or only rarely use official border crossings for their trafficking. Land ports of entry are their primary means for getting drugs into the country, not stretches of the border without barriers, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says. 

 

The agency said in a November report that the most common trafficking technique by transnational criminal organizations is to hide drugs in passenger vehicles or tractor-trailers as they drive into the U.S. though entry ports, where they are stopped and subject to inspection. They also employ buses, cargo trains and tunnels, the report says, citing smuggling methods that would not be choked off by a border wall. 

 

Trump: “The new trade deal we have with Mexico and Canada — what we save on that, just with Mexico, will pay for the wall many times over, just in a period of a year, two years or three years. So I view that as absolutely Mexico is paying for the wall.” — Rose Garden news conference. 

 

The facts: Mexico is not paying for the wall and nothing in the trade agreement would cover or refund the construction cost. 

 

Trump is assuming a wide variety of economic benefits will come from the agreement, but they can’t be quantified or counted on. For example, he said the deal will dissuade some U.S. companies from moving operations to Mexico and he credits that possibility as a payment by Mexico for his wall.  

The deal updates the North American Free Trade Agreement, in the main preserving NAFTA’s liberalized environment of low or no tariffs among the U.S., Mexico and Canada, while making certain improvements for each country. Trump stated inaccurately that it’s “brand-new. It’s totally different.” 

 

Moreover, it’s not in effect. The deal has yet to be ratified in any member country and its chances of winning legislative approval are not assured. 

 

Trump has argued repeatedly that Mexico is footing the bill even while insisting on $5.6 billion from the U.S. Treasury to go toward wall construction. His demand and the refusal of Democrats to satisfy it are behind the budget standoff that has closed parts of the government. 

 

Syria 

 

Trump: “We had a fantastic meeting with the generals and the Syria situation. I mean, I’m the only person in the history of our country that could really decimate ISIS, say we’re bringing the troops back home over a period of time. I never said so quickly, but over a period of time.” — Cabinet meeting Wednesday.  

 

The facts: He’s wrong about his past statements regarding the pace of withdrawal. In a video posted to his Twitter account on Dec. 19, for instance, Trump said of the roughly 2,000 troops in Syria: “They’re all coming back, and they’re coming back now.” 

 

Trump: “I read, when we pull out, ‘Oh, Russia is thrilled.’ Russia is not happy. You know why they’re not happy? Because they like it when we’re killing ISIS [Islamic State fighters], because we’re killing them for them, and we’re killing them for [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad, and we’re killing ISIS also for Iran.” — Cabinet meeting. 

 

The facts: Russia says it’s happy. A U.S. withdrawal opens opportunities for Moscow and Tehran to increase their influence and may help the Syrian government survive as a Kurdish-led opposition force loses its military ally on the ground. 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the U.S. “has done the right thing” in planning to pull out.  

 

Afghanistan 

 

Trump: “The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They [the Soviets] were right to be there.” — Cabinet meeting.  

​The facts: His assertion that the Soviet Union was experiencing a terrorist influx from Afghanistan when it invaded in 1979 is out of step with history. And his belief that the Soviets were right to invade is a stark departure from U.S. and world opinion. 

 

The Soviets were trying to bolster communists in Afghanistan and possibly expand their influence against the United States and the West.  

 

World condemnation was swift: The U.N. General Assembly voted 104-18 to deplore the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. The U.S. supported the anti-communist rebels, giving them shoulder-fired rockets to down Soviet aircraft. The Soviets withdrew in 1989. 

 

Trump: “Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia, because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan.” — Cabinet meeting. 

 

The facts: Afghanistan was far from the sole reason for the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The dissolution occurred in a time of ethnic and political troubles, economic woes and a series of revolutions that led Soviet republics to seek their independence. The Soviet demise was accelerated by the heavy cost of competing with the West to wield influence around the world, including in Afghanistan.  

​Oil prices 

 

Trump: “Do you think it’s just luck that gas prices are so low, and falling? Low gas prices are like another Tax Cut!” — tweet Tuesday. 

Trump: “It’s not luck. It’s not luck. I called up certain people, and I said, ‘Let that damn oil and gasoline — you let it flow — the oil.’ It was going up to $125. If that would’ve happened, then you would’ve had a recession, depression.” — Cabinet meeting Wednesday. 

 

The facts: It’s not all about him, or even mostly about him.  

 

While Americans may end up paying somewhat less for gasoline this year, Trump’s suggestion that he deserves all the credit and averted a U.S. economic depression is an exaggeration. Oil prices, which peaked Oct. 3, have been generally falling on the realization that U.S. sanctions against Iran would not create a shortage and on fear that a global oversupply of oil will spill into 2019 if slower international economic growth depresses energy demand.  

 

The president’s supposed “let it flow” edict did not stop OPEC and its Russia-led allies from agreeing last month to cut oil production. That initially failed to stop oil prices from sliding further; they have since rebounded a few dollars in the past week. Continued OPEC production cuts would push prices higher.  

 

Trump has pointed to his positive relations with oil exporter Saudi Arabia. As a so-called swing producer with the ability to adjust production up or down relatively quickly, it can indeed influence the price of crude. But the market is complex: Canada, for example, is actually the top source of U.S. oil imports, with Saudi Arabia second.  

 

Tariffs 

 

Trump: “The United States Treasury has taken in MANY billions of dollars from the Tariffs we are charging China and other countries that have not treated us fairly. In the meantime we are doing well in various Trade Negotiations currently going on.” — tweet Thursday.  

​The facts: Trump is off on two major issues. First, tariffs are taxes paid largely by U.S. business and consumers, not foreign countries. And while Trump’s “MANY billions” might sound like a lot, it’s doing little to nothing to improve the federal balance sheet. The U.S. government spent $4.1 trillion last fiscal year and the budget deficit shot up, according to Trump’s own Treasury Department. 

 

Customs and duties generated $41.3 billion in revenues last year, up from $34.6 billion in 2017. 

 

That $6.7 billion increase occurred in part because of the president’s tariffs. But it amounted to just 0.16 percent of federal spending. 

 

Mattis 

 

Trump, on Jim Mattis: “I wish him well. I hope he does well. But, as you know, President [Barack] Obama fired him and essentially so did I. I want results.” — Cabinet meeting Wednesday. 

 

The facts: Actually, Mattis resigned as defense secretary in protest over Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops from Syria. 

 

The retired Marine general announced on Dec. 20 in a resignation letter that he was stepping down after Trump’s decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. Mattis said he would stay on the job until the end of February. Three days later, Trump said he was replacing Mattis with the second-ranking defense official, Pat Shanahan, on Jan. 1. 

 

As to the tenure under Obama, Mattis served as commander of the military’s Central Command. He departed a few months earlier than expected in 2013, in part because of disagreements over Iran. 

 

Drug prices 

 

Trump: “I think you’re going to see a tremendous reduction in drug prices.” — Cabinet meeting Wednesday. 

 

The facts: Prices continue to rise. Administration policies announced last year and currently being completed don’t seem to have shifted that trend.  

Figures on U.S. prescription drug price changes compiled by health data company Elsevier show that from Dec. 20 through Jan. 2, there were 1,179 product price changes. Of those, 30 were price cuts and the remaining 1,149 were price increases, with 328 of them between 9 percent and 10 percent. All but one of the rest were by lower percentages. Elsevier spokesman Chris Capot said more companies will be announcing price increases this month. 

 

Separately, a data firm whose software can help patients find the most cost-effective medications says its information shows price increases on many commonly used drugs for conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes. 

 

“In the first two days of January, prices have increased on more than 250 different products,” said Michael Rea, CEO of Rx Savings Solutions. The average increase is about 6 percent, he added. 

 

Immigration 

 

Trump, on the number of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally: “I used to hear 11 million all the time. It would always stay right at 11. I said, ‘Does it ever increase or go down?’ ‘No, it’s 11.’ Nobody knows. It’s probably 30, 35 million people. They would flow in, mostly from the southern border, they’d come in and nobody would talk about it, nobody would do anything about it.” — Cabinet meeting Wednesday. 

 

The facts: It’s nowhere close to 30 million to 35 million, according to his own Homeland Security secretary as well as independent estimates.  

The nonpartisan Pew Research Center estimates there were 10.7 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally in 2016, the most recent data available. Advocacy groups on both sides of the immigration issue have similar estimates. 

 

At a House hearing last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen acknowledged the number was “somewhere” between 11 million and 22 million, significantly lower than Trump’s claim of 35 million. 

 

According to Pew, the number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally reached a height of 12.2 million in 2007, representing about 4 percent of the U.S. population, before declining in part because of a weakening U.S. economy. 

 

Trump: “The coyotes are using children to gain access into this country. They’re using these children. They’re not with families. They’re using the children. They’re taking the children. And then they dispose of the children after they’re done. This has been going on for years. This isn’t unique to us. But we want to stop it.” — Cabinet meeting Wednesday. 

 

The facts: This does happen, though it’s not as common as Trump suggests by talking about it so often. 

 

He is referring to adults who come with children they falsely claim to be theirs, so that they won’t be detained under a no-child-separation policy. 

 

But such cases of fraud are rare. According to the Homeland Security Department, about 500 immigrants were found to be not a “legitimate family unit” and thus separated upon detention from April 19 to Sept. 30 of last year. That’s a small fraction of the 107,000 families apprehended in the last budget year, which ended Sept. 30.
…

The education of the star-studded class of House freshmen has begun.

Lesson one: Speaking with the bluntness of a candidate can produce swift and uncomfortable results.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib learned that before lunch Friday, when her profane remarks the night before vowing to impeach President Donald Trump drew almost no support, and plenty of pushback, from members of her party.

“It’s been pretty intense,” Tlaib, D-Mich., told The Associated Press in a brief hallway interview Friday as she reported to the House to face her colleagues.

Hours after Tlaib was sworn in as part of the history-making class of freshmen that helped flip the House to Democratic control, she ran afoul of the widespread sense among her colleagues that they should focus for now on health care and other policies rather than impeachment — at least until special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation concludes.

“We’re gonna impeach the motherf—er,” Tlaib exclaimed during a party Thursday night hosted by the liberal activist group MoveOn, according to video and comments on Twitter.

It was a striking coda to the Democrats’ heady ascendance to the House majority Thursday, sparking unusually public corrections from House veterans.

“I disagree with what she said,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., during a CNN interview. His committee would be the one to begin impeachment proceedings.

“It is too early to talk about that intelligently,” Nadler said. “We have to follow the facts.”

Newcomers routinely stumble as they learn how things are done on Capitol Hill. But Tlaib and her classmates have been celebrated in magazine profiles for their independence and their promises to stand up to the powers that be. By rebuking one, the more seasoned Democrats were effectively warning the others.

“I think some of our new members probably don’t realize that you are always on, that when you are a member of Congress, there’s always someone listening,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. She said she hopes Tlaib’s remarks aren’t news for long.

More than Tlaib’s profanity, it was her vow to impeach Trump that drew her colleagues’ disapproval.

Tlaib’s defiance flew in the face of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s warning to focus on policies the candidates had promised ahead of the Nov. 6 elections. The timing also chafed, just hours before congressional leaders were headed to the White House to try to resolve the standoff over the border wall Trump is demanding in exchange for reopening the government. Republicans pounced, using the occasion to question the Democrats’ true priorities and Pelosi’s leadership.

With a tight smile, Pelosi rejected Tlaib’s profanity and her impeachment vow.

“That is not the position of the House Democratic caucus,” Pelosi said on MSNBC of Tlaib’s comments. “I don’t think we should make a big deal of it.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., served up a reminder to the new members that seniority rules in Congress.

“She’s a freshman. It’s her first day here,” Connolly said of Tlaib. “She went in front of an enthusiastic crowd of her supporters and it was red meat for them. She yielded to that temptation.”

“I’m sure upon reflection,” Connolly suggested, “she might choose other words to describe her feelings.”

Talk of impeachment remains in the air, fueled by a handful of Democrats on Pelosi’s left flank who are pressuring her to more aggressively pursue the issue. But such proceedings appear unlikely for now. Even if the House advances any articles of impeachment, a two-thirds-majority vote to convict Trump in the Republican-controlled Senate and remove him from office would seem out of the question, barring astonishing new revelations.

Tlaib wasn’t the only freshman who got a lesson in how one comment can upend Capitol Hill.

Some of Tlaib’s classmates were pursued for reaction — standard results when a political ally says something that raises eyebrows.

“I am not talking about those things,” laughed Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., when asked Friday to respond to Tlaib’s remarks.

She said she was elected because she talked about preserving health care. “I’m not going to tell anyone else what to do, but certainly, I think, it would behoove all of us to really be working for the people who need” Congress’ help.
…

White House senior staff will be gathering over the weekend at the Camp David presidential compound for a “staff retreat” to discuss the administration’s priorities for 2019. And White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says President Trump will be joining them and leading meetings Sunday.

The gathering comes as Mick Mulavney assumes his new role as acting chief of staff following John Kelly’s departure earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Trump has tasked Vice President Mike Pence, senior adviser Jared Kushner and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen with meeting with House and Senate leadership staff to continue trying to hash out a deal to end the partial government shutdown.

It is now in its 14th day.
…

President Trump and congressional leaders failed again to reach a deal to end the partial government shutdown, with both sides signaling a deadlock over their positions on funding for the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The president has assigned a working group to negotiate with lawmakers over the weekend, but said that he is prepared to continue the shutdown for months, even years. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
…

The National Park Service says parts of Death Valley National Park closed Friday, the latest park to suffer the effects of the partial government shutdown.

Officials say several campsites in the park had to be closed because of health and safety concerns, including human waste, trash and vandalism.

Park officials say donations are keeping several other campsites in Death Valley National Park open as well as some restrooms. Visitors are still being asked to try to use restrooms before entering the park and to pack up all waste when they leave.

Three visitor deaths

The shutdown has affected most national parks, which have been left without many of the rangers and other park officials who usually keep the parks running.

Park officials say three people have died in national parks since the shutdown began: a 14-year-old girl who fell in Glen Canyon Recreation Area in Arizona, a man who suffered a head injury from a fall in Yosemite National Park, and a woman who was killed by a falling tree at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee.

Park officials say that accidental deaths are not unusual at national parks, with an average of six people dying each week in the park system.

While it is not clear if any of those deaths could have been prevented by more park staff on site, The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the investigation into at least one of the deaths, the accident in Yosemite, has been delayed because of the shutdown.

Parks left open, unsupervised

Unlike some previous shutdowns, the Trump administration has left most parks open to visitors despite staff furloughs.

The move has allowed people vacationing in parks to continue with their plans, but has led to cases of overflowing trash cans and park bathrooms not being cleaned frequently enough.

Reports of illegal camping and vandalism at some parks have led to some restrictions.

Campgrounds at Joshua Tree closed earlier this week because of health concerns that vault toilets were near their capacity.

In the southern Sierra Nevada in Central California, some areas of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks have also been closed.

About 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay. As of Friday, the partial shutdown had been in effect for 14 days. This is the fourth-longest government shutdown — partial or full — in the past 40 years.
…

The Supreme Court is plunging back into the issue of whether electoral districts can be too partisan.

Disputes have arisen in cases involving North Carolina’s heavily Republican congressional map and a Democratic congressional district in Maryland, and the justices said Friday they will hear arguments in March.

The high court could come out with the first limits on partisan politics in the drawing of electoral districts, but also could ultimately decide that federal judges have no role in trying to police political mapmaking.

The court took up the issue of partisan gerrymandering last term in cases from Wisconsin and the same Maryland district, but the justices failed to reach a decision on limiting political line-drawing for political gain.

No history for Kavanaugh

Justice Anthony Kennedy had said he was open to limits. He has since retired, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh has taken Kennedy’s seat. He has no judicial record on the issue.

The court again has taken one case in which Democrats are accused of unfairly limiting Republicans’ political power and one in which Republicans are the alleged culprits. The court also has the entire North Carolina congressional map before it, but only the one Maryland district.

In both cases, however, lower courts have found that the party in charge of redistricting — Republicans in North Carolina, Democrats in Maryland — egregiously violated the rights of voters in the other party.

The North Carolina map was redrawn in 2016 because federal courts determined two districts originally drawn in 2011 were illegal because of excessive racial bias.

In November, Republicans won at least nine of the 13 seats in North Carolina’s congressional delegation and appeared to have won a 10th seat, in keeping with how many they held before the 2016 remapping. But state election officials have so far declined to certify the results in the 9th District in south-central North Carolina because of allegations of absentee ballot fraud.

A key Republican in the North Carolina redistricting process, state Rep. David Lewis, has said that he drew 10 Republican districts because he did not “believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.”

Three-judge panel reviews decision

In January, a three-judge court found that the map violated the Constitution and ordered the state to come up with a new plan quickly, in time for the 2018 elections. But the Supreme Court delayed enforcement of the court order, mainly because the justices already were considering the partisan districting cases from Maryland and Wisconsin.

When those cases did not settle the issue, the high court ordered the three judges to take a new look at their earlier decision. They reaffirmed the ruling in August, but also concluded there wasn’t enough time to put new districts in place for 2018.

Common Cause, the watchdog group that supports limits on partisan line-drawing, is leading the challenge to the North Carolina districts. “Whether it is Democrats or Republicans manipulating the election maps, gerrymanders cheat voters out of true representation,” Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn said in a statement. “The Supreme Court has the opportunity to set a clear standard that will restore a meaningful vote to millions of Americans disenfranchised by gerrymanders in Maryland, North Carolina and across the country.”

Bill D’Elia, a spokesman for North Carolina Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger, said Friday that Democrats have been looking for much of this decade to find judges who will redraw maps that will boost their candidates. “We hope the Supreme Court finally puts this nonsense to rest and that Democrats go back to the old-fashioned way of winning elections: convincing people to vote for them,” D’Elia said in an email. 

In Maryland, Democratic Rep. David Trone was sworn into office Thursday to represent a district that runs from the Washington suburbs to the rural northwest corner of the state. Democrats who controlled the redistricting process overhauled the district in 2011, turning what had been a reliably Republican stronghold into a Democratic district.

Republicans files suit

Several Republican voters sued over the new district’s boundaries, claiming it unfairly favored Democrats.

A day after the November elections, a three-judge panel agreed with the Republicans who sued and ordered Maryland officials to draw a new congressional redistricting plan that isn’t tainted by partisan gerrymandering.

Judge Paul Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said in his opinion for the panel that the Maryland congressional map removed roughly 66,000 Republican voters from the district and added around 24,000 Democratic voters, “bringing about the single greatest alteration of voter makeup in any district in the Nation following the 2010 census.”

Trone is not a party to the case, but he filed a legal brief in which he said he “is no fan of partisan gerrymandering, but that does not mean it is a terminal disease, much less one that the judiciary can or should cure.”   
…

A new U.S. Congress opened in Washington Thursday with a historic class of new legislators, many without political experience. The racially diverse class has set some records, including the most women elected to Congress, the first Native American and Muslim women, the first U.S. Army Green Beret. Voice of America is following the challenges these lawmakers will face in their first year. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti introduces us to two new U.S. representatives who are “Climbing the Hill.”
…

Nancy Pelosi, who is again the U.S. House speaker, called for mutual respect and transparency in the work of the new Congress. The Democrat from California, addressed lawmakers during a swearing-in ceremony Thursday. As VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, Pelosi called for a Congress that works for all Americans.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional leaders are scheduled to meet late Friday morning at the White House to discuss how to end the government shutdown that has entered its third week.

The meeting comes a day after a new group of lawmakers was sworn into office in what is now a Democratically led House of Representatives.

Thursday night, the House passed a plan to reopen the federal government.

The measure did not include the $5 billion the president has demanded to build a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico.

“We’re not doing a wall,” Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said after she was sworn in Thursday as the new speaker of the House of Representatives. She suggested that the money could better be used for border security technology and hiring more border agents.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the House plan to end the shutdown “political theater,” even though the Republican-led Senate passed an identical bill last month.

The legislation passed in the House Thursday called for the reopening of the federal government and the funding of the Department of Homeland Security until early February.

While Trump himself has not used the word “veto,” other White House officials have. One official said the president told Democratic leaders he would “look foolish” if he ended the shutdown.

 

Trump is blaming Democrats for the current situation.

“The shutdown is only because of the 2020 presidential election,” he tweeted Thursday. “The Democrats know they can’t win based on all of the achievements of Trump, so they are going all out on the desperately needed wall and border security and presidential harassment. For them, strictly politics.”

Trump said the country needs protection, and warned that crime, drugs and gangs were pouring into the United States from Mexico.

He also claimed there are as many as 35 million illegal immigrants in the United States, contradicting experts who say the number is far lower.

Meanwhile, 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay.
…

They’ve got the keys to the offices, new paint inside and parties to attend. But on Thursday, the work was beginning when 534 members of the 116th Congress solemnly swear to govern the divided nation.

The new Congress will make history for seating a record number of women and becoming the most racially and ethnically diverse. Republicans will take more seats in the Senate; Democrats will grab control of the House.

“It’s a new day in America,” tweeted incoming Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress.

Lawmakers will be confronted by a standoff over money and immigration that has shut much of the government and vexed their predecessors.

What to watch on the first day of divided government under President Donald Trump:

HOW CAN I WATCH?

C-SPAN and various broadcast networks are expected to stream or televise the events. Both the House and Senate convene at noon EST.

THE ORDER OF THINGS

There will be prayers and pledges of allegiance.

In the 435-member House, a roll call will begin on the election of speaker. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is poised to reprise her role in that post, second in line to the presidency. Once the vote is over, Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is expected to speak, followed by an address by Pelosi.

The longest-serving member of the House and its dean, 24-term Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, will swear in Pelosi. She is then expected administer the oath to House members and delegates at the same time.

In the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence will preside over the oath-taking of the 34 members who stood for election on Nov. 6. Republicans gained two seats in that chamber.

THE OATH

Lawmakers will take this oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

PELOSI

She is, some say, feared. And Pelosi is still giving nothing for the U.S. border wall Trump is demanding in exchange for re-opening the government.

Pelosi, 78, seems to have sewn up her return as House speaker, but her comeback depended on her promise to limit her tenure to a maximum of four years. Doing so quelled a rebellion by a stubborn faction of Democrats demanding a new generation of leaders.

She prevailed, wielding skills she will need to manage the roughly 235 Democrats who will comprise the House majority in the new Congress.

Her ascension sets up a clash with Trump.

But where Trump has Twitter and status among his base as a Washington outsider, Pelosi has a network of allies inside and outside Congress — not to mention three decades in the House.

She’s been speaker before, the only woman to hold the post, from 2007 into January 2011.

WHAT’S DIFFERENT?

Rep.-elect Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., will take the oath on a Quran, and not just anyone’s. She’ll use a 1734 English translation that belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

Tlaib and Omar are the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress. And they’re just a few of the signs of change that spring from the Nov. 6 elections. For the first time, two Native American women are headed to the House. Massachusetts and Connecticut will also send black women to Congress as firsts for their states, while Arizona and Tennessee are getting their first female senators.

In all, 127 women — 106 Democrats 21 Republicans — will serve in the 116th Congress, holding nearly 24 percent of all seats, according to the Center for Women and Politics at Rutgers University. In the Senate, 25 women will serve, with 17 of them Democrats and eight Republicans.

The number of House seats held by Republican women will decline by 10, from 23 to 13.

WHAT’S THE SAME?

Being a freshmen is, well, not as glamorous as winning elections. Governing takes different skills than campaigning. And in Congress, seniority matters, a lot.

“I was kind of the mountain where I was,” recalled veteran Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., a former chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. “You come here and it’s a humbling experience. Get in line. It’s fascinating that you have an opinion about that, get over there.”

Asked in a brief interview about first-term lawmakers having to temper their expectations, Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said, “That’s right. We’ll see.”

CAN’T THE NEW CONGRESS REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT?

Not without Trump’s agreement, and he isn’t budging. He wants billions of dollars for a U.S. border wall. Democrats are refusing. Pelosi said outside the White House that there would be rapid passage Thursday of legislation to re-open the government — without funds for the border wall. But the White House has rejected that package, and it’s going nowhere in the Senate.
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Divided government returned to the United States Thursday with the swearing-in of a new Congress. After two years during which Republicans controlled the White House, Senate and the House of Representatives, Democrats now hold the majority in the House.
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