The 116th United States Congress returned the first woman to the position of Speaker of the House and swore in the most diverse group of lawmakers in history. The legislators took office Thursday in the middle of a partial government shutdown. The shutdown dispute is over President Donald Trump’s demand for money to build a wall along the U.S-Mexico border. Nancy Pelosi was the first woman to ever serve as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. She did so from 2007 to 2011. On Thursday, she was re-elected to the office, as Democrats took control of the House. Republicans still hold the majority in the Senate. The new Democratic-controlled House has more women and more minorities than in the past. It includes New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. There is also Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, the first two Muslim women to be elected. New Mexico’s Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids of Kansas became the first two Native American women in Congress. Women hold 102 seats in the House and 25 seats in the Senate.
