It's the first day of the new and most diverse U.S. Congress seen in America's history.
However, it's now Day 13 of the government shutdown.
For more on this and other news around the world we turn to our Ro Aram….
Aram… So Democrats have control of the House and they have wasted no time in flexing their political muscle to end this shutdown.
That's right Mark…. The Democrats have gotten straight to business, preparing to pass legislation that would end the shutdown, without giving President Trump funding for his border wall.
The 116th Congress convened Thursday with roughly a quarter of the federal government closed, which has affected 800,000 employees.
Democratic lawmaker Nancy Pelosi has reclaimed the speaker's gavel.
She called the House to order and said legislation would be proposed that aims to break the impasse.
"I'm particularly proud to be woman speaker of the House of this Congress which marks the one hundredth year of women having the right to vote…… We will debate in advance good ideas no matter where they come from. And in that spirit Democrats will be offering the Senate Republican appropriations legislation to reopen government later today."
One of the proposed bills does include funding for border security, but the amount is nowhere near the five billion dollars demanded by President Trump.
Trump and Republican Senators have dismissed the proposed bills, accusing the Democrats of playing politics.
