Congress' approval rating hovers around 15 percent, but
there's one group of people excited about the institution: the newly elected
lawmakers who are about to join its ranks. The House will welcome 58 freshmen
this coming week, including 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats, pushing the GOP
majority to 246 members, the most since the Great Depression.
In the Senate, 13 new lawmakers, all but one of them
Republican, will be sworn in, flipping control of the chamber to the GOP with a
54-vote majority. The incoming classes will bring new gender and racial
diversity to Capitol Hill, with 104 women in the House and Senate and close to
100 black, Hispanic and Asian lawmakers. The newcomers include the youngest
woman elected to Congress, 30-year-old Elise Stefanik of New York, and the
first black Republican woman, Mia Love of Utah.
As the new members prepared to arrive on Capitol Hill,
several said they brought hopes of curbing the often partisan atmosphere in
Washington, showing the public that they really can govern and, just maybe,
getting Congress' approval rating back up past 20 percent.
A few of the notable new arrivals:
THE MILENNIALS
Stefanik, a Republican, is one of several young new faces
bringing fresh blood to Capitol Hill, where many lawmakers, especially
senators, are in their 70s or even older. Others are Democrats Seth Moulton of
Massachusetts, who is 36, and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who's 35. The three all
graduated from Harvard University and have friends in common, Gallego said.
Gallego said the three have already discussed areas of
cooperation, such as infrastructure investments and bringing down the cost of
college.
THE EXPERIENCED HANDS
Two of the newcomers to Congress are not new to Washington
at all. In Michigan, Democrat Debbie Dingell is replacing her husband, John
Dingell, the longest-serving member of Congress, who retired after nearly 60
years.
In Virginia, Republican Barbara Comstock is replacing her
onetime boss, Frank Wolf, whom she served as a top aide and chief counsel on
the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee before joining the Virginia
House of Delegates.
Dingell and Comstock are friendly and have spoken about how
they can collaborate and improve relations and policy making on Capitol Hill. Comstock,
who has started a women's leadership initiative in Virginia, said she, Dingell
and other female lawmakers have met together and hope to forge coalitions.
THE NEW REPUBLICAN
DIVERSITY
GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate remain overwhelmingly
white and male, but some of the new Republican arrivals break that mold. In
addition to Stefanik, a woman, and Curbelo, who is Hispanic, the GOP now claims
two black House members, Love and Will Hurd of Texas. There is also one black
senator, 10 Hispanic House members and two Hispanic senators. There are 22
Republican women in the House and six in the Senate.
The newcomers could add diversity of ideas to the Republican
conference. Curbelo said he would push House GOP leaders to support immigration
overhaul legislation, something the party has resisted.
THE MILITARY VETERANS
A number of the new arrivals have served in the military,
something that has become increasingly rare on Capitol Hill. Moulton and
Gallego both served with the Marines in Iraq, while another incoming freshman,
Republican Lee Zeldin of New York, served with the Army there.
Republican Rep.-elect Martha McSally of Arizona is a retired
Air Force colonel and the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat. She told
"Fox News Sunday" that military veterans bring a problem-solving
perspective.
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