MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block. Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi officially swore in the 111th Congress of the United States. The first day of a legislative session is always full of pomp and circumstance, and today was no exception. But the House also got right down to business, as NPR congressional correspondent Andrea Seabrook reports.
ANDREA SEABROOK: The Capitol was decked out in full regalia. Freshly pressed suits and little girls in dresses and white tights packed the floor as Speaker Pelosi administered the oath of office to the new House.
Representative NANCY PELOSI (Democrat, California; Speaker of the House): And that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you God.
Unidentified Group: I do.
Representative PELOSI: Congratulations. You are now members of the 111th Congress.
(Soundbite of applause)
SEABROOK: Off the floor, out of view of the cameras, the first day of Congress looks, well, different.
Representative TIM RYAN (Democrat, Ohio): Tim Ryan, yeah. Do I get my pin here, too?
SEABROOK: Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan lined up at a strikingly unceremonial folding table. He's here to pick up his opening day packet.
Representative RYAN: It's like school, you know what I mean? Where is the bathroom, and where is the cafeteria? You know, it's always important. You've got to figure out what the new color is going to be, what the new pins are going to look like.
SEABROOK: Those congressional lapel pins are a little bigger, a little fancier this year. Members fiddled with their jackets in front of the gilded mirrors just off the House floor. Pennsylvania Republican Bill Shuster finally got his pin attached, and he was carrying a small leather-bound book, obviously well-worn.
SEABROOK: Hey, what's this? What do you have there?
Representative BILL SHUSTER (Republican, Pennsylvania): It's my family Bible, my grandmother's Bible. My father was a member of Congress, served 15 terms. Every time he was sworn in, he had the Bible. And I've - and it's my fifth term, so I bring it, and we put a little inscription in the Bible. And so, a little bit of history - Shuster family history.
SEABROOK: And especially keyed up on this day: leading Democrats, hot off a banner election. What was New York's Charlie Rangel doing?
Representative CHARLES RANGEL (Democrat, New York): Signing in for the most exciting session in my political life.
SEABROOK: Really?
Representative RANGEL: Yes.
SEABROOK: You've been here a little while, too.
Representative RANGEL: Thirty-eight years. When I was sworn in, George Washington had white hair.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SEABROOK: A new mandate, Democrats say, a new direction, led by the woman who will be at the helm of this Congress.
Ms. LORRAINE MILLER (Clerk of the House of Representatives): The honorable Nancy Pelosi of the state of California, having received the majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the House for the 111th Congress.
SEABROOK: House Clerk Lorraine Miller called the vote. It's Pelosi's second term as speaker of the House, and this time she commands a significantly bigger majority: 256 Democrats and 178 Republicans. That's a comfy, 78-seat advantage. And by all indications, she plans to use it.
Representative PELOSI: Together with our new president, we, as a Congress and a country, must fulfill the rest of America's promise, with spirited debate and without partisan deadlock or delay.
SEABROOK: But first things first. Democratic leaders laid out a new set of rules for House debate. They repealed term limits for committee chairmen, for example. Perhaps the most important change is one that sounds, well, a little silly. In certain floor motions, Democrats will bar members from using the word "promptly" and require, instead, the word "forthwith." You heard me right. Promptly is out, forthwith is in. Sounds small, but the effect is to block a parliamentary maneuver minority Republicans used successfully last session to kill legislation they didn't agree with.
Representative JIM SENSENBRENNER (Republican, Wisconsin): What are you afraid of?
SEABROOK: Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner heated up the first debate of the year.
Representative SENSENBRENNER: Shame on you because you're shutting down the process, and you are going to result in more partisanship, not less. You're going to result in having the country even more divided, not less.
SEABROOK: So, by the end of the day, wives and husbands filed out of the Capitol. Kids were falling asleep on their father's shoulders. And the real work of Congress had begun. Andrea Seabrook, NPR News, the Capitol.