Democrats vow change as Cong ends session
Ap, Washington
The 109th session of Congress, frustrated by partisanship and criticised for its meagre record of accomplishment, ended with flurry of bill-passing and promises of change when Democrats take over the House and Senate in January. Before the predawn finish Saturday, departing House Speaker Dennis Hastert acknowledged that after eight years, the longest stretch for a Republican in the job, he will welcome a return to the rank and file. "On Jan. 4, I will be privileged to rejoin you on these benches where my heart is," he said, The Illinois Republican will be succeeded on that day by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California. She becomes the first female speaker and the first Democrat in the post since Newt Gingrich of Georgia led the Republicans to power in 1995. Pelosi is promising that the new Democratic era will get off to a quick start with votes to raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, enact lobbying and ethics reform and lower Medicare prescription drug costs. As often is the case in the waning hours, the congressional session ended with a mad rush to deal with untended business. In the long final day, ending around 4:40 a.m. EST in the Senate, the two chambers passed a massive tax and trade bill, prevented the government from shutting down and approved dozens of other bills. They included an important fisheries management measure; a bill allowing civilian nuclear technology transfers to India; and bills to fund programmes to combat AIDS, pandemic diseases and premature births. Lawmakers ready to return home also were reminded of the corruption and scandal problems that helped sweep Democrats to power in the November elections.
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