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Jan. 3, 2019 / 3:16 PM GMT
By Rebecca Shabad, Kasie Hunt and Alex Moe
WASHINGTON — After her expected win of the speaker’s gavel Thursday, Nancy Pelosi will address her vision for the 116th Congress with Democrats back in the majority, pointing to future action to address income disparity and the climate crisis and pledging to work across the aisle.
“I pledge that this Congress will be transparent, bipartisan and unifying; that we will seek to reach across the aisle in this chamber and across the divisions in this great nation… the floor of this House must be America’s Town Hall: where the people will see our debates, and where their voices will be heard and affect our decisions,” the California Democrat will say, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks.
The formal floor vote to elect Pelosi as speaker of the House will begin around 12:45 p.m. and is expected to end just before 2 p.m. Pelosi, who previously served as House speaker from 2007 until 2011, secured enough support to win the leadership post late last year. She will need to win a majority of the full House present and voting during the formal floor vote in order to win the gavel.
Pelosi, 78, will tout the “optimism, idealism and patriotism of this transformative Freshman Class” and will argue that the Congress must focus on accelerating “a future that advances America’s preeminence in the world” by working on “public education, workforce development, good-paying jobs and secure pensions.”
And as Democrats prepare to launch a select committee to address climate change, Pelosi will say that Congress “must work to put an end to the inaction and denial of science that threaten the planet and the future.”
Pelosi’s election comes as Congress and the White House still have not reached an agreement to end the federal government shutdown that has now stretched into its 13th day.
The newly-elected speaker will discuss the appropriations that they plan to vote on Thursday to attempt to re-open the government even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has made clear he won’t bring up the legislation in that chamber.
