After a brief scare, when it appeared as if organizing the House of Representatives might be delayed by the inability to elect a Speaker, both chambers of Congress managed to convene and organize themselves today for the new 119th Congress. (Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was re-elected, on the first ballot, with the absolute mathematical bare minimum number of votes necessary).

434 House members-elect showed up today, meaning that 218 was still the bare minimum majority number. And since Republicans only hold 219 seats out of that 434, and since the Speakership vote started this afternoon with the certainty that at least one Republican was going to vote “no” on Johnson at all costs, the tension was thick.

Meanwhile, things went more according to tradition in the Senate. Newly elected Senators, forming around one-third of the chamber, were sworn in by Vice President Harris in sets of four. Not present: Senator-elect Jim Justice (R-WV), who said this morning that he was not going to come to Washington and take the oath until his term as governor runs out on January 13, keeping the Republican margin at 52-47 for the time being.

The seniormost Republican Senator, Chuck Grassley (R-IA), was elected as President pro tempore unanimously and sworn in.

Then the Senate agreed to some housekeeping business and adjourned until noon on Monday, January 6, where they will then proceed to the House chamber for the  joint session to count electoral votes. The Senate adjourned at 1:25 pm, which was before they knew for certain if there was going to be a joint session on Monday or not.

That was not clear until around 2:30 p.m. The House had finished the first ballot for Speaker almost an hour before, leaving incumbent Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) two votes short of a majority of the chamber. (He was one vote ahead of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), 216 to 215, but three Republicans, Tom Massie (R-KY), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Keith Self (R-TX), had voted for other candidates.

Then, at 2:30, after a closed-doors chat with Johnson and others, Norman and Self walked down to the well, stood in front of the dais, and switched their votes to Johnson, who was then certified as the winner, 218 to 215.

(Johnson still has a lot of work to do to prove that he can deliver legislation. See the announcement just made by 11 of the conservative GOP members who had strongly considered voting for someone else as to what they expect from a renewed Johnson speakership.)

After some speechifying by both sides, Johnson was then sworn in just before 3:30 p.m., and he then swore in the remainder of the Members-elect.

The House is now adopting a new rules package for the 119^th Congress, which doesn’t make any transportation-relevant changes, but which does provide the legislative schedule for the upcoming week, starting on page 36, with a bunch of red meat GOP messaging bills: transgender athletes, deporting or excluding certain aliens (3 different bills), sanctuary cities, criminalizing high-speed police changes, abortion, voter ID, fentanyl, and fracking – along with an odd US-Taiwan taxation bill.

At the same time, the House is also planning on voting on more normal bills next week on the suspension calendar, which requires a two-thirds vote margin and thus significant Democratic buy-in, which in turn also makes passage of such bills possible in the Senate.  Two of those are transportation bills: a do-over of the Amtrak Executive Bonus Disclosure Act (which passed the House last month as H.R. 8689 by voice vote but died in the Senate), and a do-over of the Amtrak Transparency and Accountability for Passengers and Taxpayers Act (which also passed the House last month by voice vote, as H.R. 8692, but which also died in the Senate).

The rules package, once adopted, will officially create House committees, and the chairmen and ranking minority members will be appointed via resolution later today. The announcement and appointment of members to House committees will have to wait until next week.