January 3, 2019

Nancy Pelosi Is Voted Speaker of the House, Which Means Democrats Are Officially in Control

Let the oversight begin.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California is applauded at the Capitol ahead of the vote that made her speaker of the House for the second time.Carolyn Kaster/AP

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On Thursday afternoon, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was elected speaker of the House for the 116th Congress. In the biggest swing toward Democratic power since Watergate, Democrats gained 40 House seats in the 2018 midterm elections.

Pelosi formerly held the speakership between 2007-2011, at which point Democrats lost the House majority and were replaced by a wave of tea party conservatives. She has since served as House minority leader. Pelosi is the only woman to ever be elected speaker, and is the first speaker to serve two non-consecutive terms since former Texas Rep. Sam Rayburn, who served three non-consecutive terms as speaker between 1940 and 1961.

The new Congress includes a number of firsts for female politicians, including the first Native American and Muslim women elected to Congress, as well as the youngest woman elected to Congress.

The first act of the new House will be attempting to pass a spending bill to end the government shutdown that began on December 22 and has continued through the new year. President Donald Trump has said he will not sign the Democrats’ bill, which will not include funding for his border wall. Democrats have also promised a robust oversight agenda, which will include a number of investigations into Trump and his campaign.

Watch Pelosi’s first remarks after retaking the speaker’s gavel below:

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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