Washington, January 20 Three senators in the U.S. Congress were sworn in under Vice President Harris on the 20th local time, and the Democratic Party officially became the Senate majority.
On the same day, Harris took the Senate after being sworn in as Vice President of the United States, leading three Democratic senators to take the oath of office, including Jon Osoff, Rafael Warnock, who recently won the Georgia runoff election, and Alex Padilla, the former Secretary of State of California, who succeeded Harris.
With the formal admission of three Democratic senators, Democrats and Republicans each have 50 seats in the new Senate, but Harris’s vote as vice president, that is, the speaker of the Senate, has made the Democratic Party a majority in the Senate after six years.
In his speech that day, Schumer, a Democrat who officially became the leader of the Senate Majority, called on members of both parties to “unite and act immediately”.
He said that the Senate is currently facing a lot of work and requires bipartisan cooperation to complete it.
At present, the Senate is facing many agendas, including approving the Biden administration’s cabinet, passing a new round of economic stimulus plan to deal with the epidemic, and opening the impeachment trial of former President Trump.
In his speech, Republican McConnell, who became the Senate Minority Leader, said that the current Democratic Party’s narrow control of the House and the Senate shows that “the American people have great confidence in both parties”.
He also said he looked forward to working with new President Biden “at any time possible”.
Later that day, the new Senate approved Biden’s nomination of Haynes as the director of national intelligence by 84 votes to 10.
Haynes became the first Biden nominee approved by the Senate and the first female director of national intelligence in U.S. history.
