RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Republicans, who assumed much more power this week, are promising to change the way that Congress does business. For lawmakers in the House, that means changing some of the rules for doing business.
The Democrats, who still control the Senate, are also pushing to change the rules, and both of these efforts are igniting some early partisan fights.
NPR's Audie Cornish was watching the first day of a new Congress.
AUDIE CORNISH: The first woman speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, turned over the gavel and the power to John Boehner yesterday.
Representative NANCY PELOSI (Democrat, California): I now pass this gavel, which is larger than most gavels here, but the gavel of choice of Mr. Speaker Boehner. I now pass this...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Rep. PELOSI: I now pass this gavel and the sacred trust that goes with it to the new speaker. God bless you, Speaker Boehner.
(Soundbite of cheering)
CORNISH: The Ohio Republican waved away his standing ovation.
Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican, Ohio; Speaker of the House): It's still just me.
(Soundbite of laughter)
CORNISH: The mood was light, but Boehner acknowledged there is a great deal of what he called scar tissue from partisan warfare. The new speaker said he would treat the post differently.
Rep. BOEHNER: Mindful of the lessons of the past, that we open a new chapter. Legislators and the public will have three days to read a bill before it comes to a vote. Legislation will be more focused, properly scrutinized, and constitutionally sound. Committees, once bloated, will be smaller, with a renewed mission.
CORNISH: But the first bit of legislation set to come to the floor seemed to kick off a new era of battle, with Democrats crying foul over new rules mandating spending cuts and the GOP's refusal to open up the planned health care overhaul repeal to amendments.
Across the Capitol, a battle over rules was under way in the Senate as well. Majority Leader Harry Reid returned to the Senate with an eye on changing the filibuster rules. Those are the parliamentary procedures that allow opponents of legislation to slow or halt debate.
Senator HARRY REID (Democrat, Nevada; Senate Majority Leader): We may not agree yet on how to fix the problem, but no one can credibly claim problems don't exist. No one who has watched this body operate since the current minority took office can say that it functions just fine. That wouldn't be true, would be dishonest.
CORNISH: There are varying proposals out there. For instance, some, like Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, argued lawmakers should not have the option of so-called secret holds, which allow senators to block measures anonymously.
Senator CLAIRE MCCASKILL (Democrat, Missouri): Nothing is more hypocritical than all the sanctimonious stuff I'm hearing down the hall about the new era, no more business as usual. No more - we're going to have accountability and transparency. But yet we seem to be embroiled down on this end of the hall with not even being able to get beyond a secret hold.
CORNISH: But Reid used a parliamentary strategy in kicking off debate that angered Republicans. He's technically extending the legislative day over the next few weeks so as to take advantage of the narrow window when a simple majority is all it takes to change the rules. And the proposed changes didn't go over very well on the other side of the aisle.
Senator MITCH MCCONNELL (Republican, Kentucky; Senate Minority Leader): Do our friends across the aisle really want to create a situation where two or four or six years from now they suddenly find themselves completely powerless to prevent Republicans from overturning legislation they themselves have worked so hard to enact?
CORNISH: Kentucky Republican and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats they were making a mistake.
Sen. MCCONNELL: The founders crafted the Senate to be different. They crafted it to be a deliberate, a thoughtful place. And changing the rules in the way thats been proposed would unalterably change the Senate itself.
CORNISH: The debate is far from over. The Senate plans to take it up in a few weeks when they return from a winter break. Meanwhile, House Republicans have only just begun. Today, Speaker Boehner will have the Constitution read aloud on the House floor, and then, Republicans say, they're going to squeeze in a vote to repeal the health care overhaul and the first round of spending cuts, all before President Obama's State of the Union address at the end of the month.
Audie Cornish, NPR News, the Capitol.