JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Tuesday, January 6, 2009 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - All three members of Wyoming's congressional delegation took oaths of office Tuesday as members of the 111th Congress.
"It was the first time since Wyoming became a state that two senators were sworn in together, and the person who swore them in is from Wyoming, the vice president," said Sen. John Barrasso, referring to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Barrasso, Sen. Mike Enzi and U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis all took the oaths of office Tuesday.
Lummis said she was one of about 55 freshmen sworn in, including 22 Republicans and 33 Democrats.
One of the first orders of business in the U.S. House, Lummis said, was to acknowledge the resignation of Congressman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who quit to become President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff.
Lummis said she was issued her voting card, which members insert into a small box at the end of each row of seats and then press a button that says aye or nay.
When that happens the member's name lights up on the electronic voting board in a red light or a green light.
The first vote Tuesday, however, was a roll call vote to elect the speaker of the U.S. House.
It was an individual voice vote and took more than one hour. Lummis said the voice vote for the speaker is a tradition.
"Fortunately, I believe we got that tradition out of the way," Lummis said.
She noted there is no women's restroom in the anteroom outside the House chambers, but there is a special women's "reading" room and a restroom across statutory hall that is "magnificent."
It is located in the original capitol building, the part that did not burn down in the War of 1812. The couch in the room is the same one that John Quincy Adams was lying on when he died.
Lummis said she is co-sponsoring a bill to stop the congressional pay raise for 2010.
She also signed on to a bill to rescind the 2009 congressional pay raise. But the prime sponsor withdrew it after lawyers raised constitutional questions about the bill, Lummis said.
Lummis also is putting out feelers about committee assignments. She said she would like a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee but realizes as a freshman she's unlikely to get that assignment.
After that, she's got her eyes on possible assignments to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and on the House Ethics Committee.
Contact capital bureau reporter Joan Barron at (307) 632-1244 or joan.barron@trib.com