Pelosi elected to 4th term as House speaker
She’s the third speaker in the last 25 years to win with less than 218 votes.
President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 17 days.
Top headlines:
Rep. Gwen Moore participating in opening day just 6 days after testing positive for COVID-19
Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Gwen Moore will participate in Sunday’s opening day events –- including the House speaker’s vote, according to her office, after testing positive for COVID-19 just six days ago.
Republicans complained that her presence “certainly seems to be in violation of the (Office of the Attending Physician) quarantine guidance,” and wonder how it was safe for her to travel to Washington after her diagnosis.
A senior Democratic aide did not immediately respond to an inquiry questioning whether special accommodations were being made for Moore, whose office also has not yet answered inquiries regarding how she traveled to Washington following her infection.
One Democratic member, who said he received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine last Tuesday, told ABC News that he is “staying clear of everyone,” pivoting to observe that some Republicans are at the Capitol and not wearing masks.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose path to the speakership is narrow with such a slim majority in the new Congress, will depend on Moore’s support to keep her position.
After opening the 117th Congress with the prayer and pledge, the House has initiated a quorum call to establish sufficient attendance ahead of the vote for speaker later in the afternoon. Lawmakers are appearing in groups of 72, arranged by alphabetical order of their last names.
-ABC News' John Parkinson and Benjamin Siegel
Senators being sworn in by vice president
The Senate floor is open and Vice President Mike Pence is presiding over the swearing in of the new Senate.
Senators are presenting themselves in pairs -- in alphabetical order and accompanied by the other senator who represents their state -- where a masked Pence is administering the oath to each pair. The first pair of senators sworn in, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Shelly Moore-Capito, R-W.Va., each elbow bumped Pence after taking the oath.
The chamber appears almost entirely full and members are applauding after each administered oath.
The Senate will welcome six new members: Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., John Hickenlooper, D-Colo,, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., was sworn in late last year.
Two Senate seats remain outstanding pending the Georgia runoff elections on Tuesday. Sen. Kelly Loeffler will maintain her seat because it was an appointment, but Sen. David Perdue's term expires as soon as the new members are sworn in.
-ABC News' Allison Pecorin
New Congress to meet at noon
The 117th session of Congress will begin with both chambers meeting at noon, as required by the Constitution.
New members of the House and Senate will be sworn in under unusual circumstances given the pandemic, with social distancing and fewer family members and supporters in attendance.
Because control of the Senate hinges on the Georgia Senate runoffs, Republicans will begin the new Congress with control of the chamber and a 51-seat majority. The seat of Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., will be vacant until a winner is formally certified in Tuesday's runoff election.
Sunday afternoon, the House will elect a speaker.
Nancy Pelosi is expected to win with the narrowest of margins, given Democrats’ historically slim majority, but the vote is expected to take longer than last year because of the coronavirus precautions that require lawmakers to enter the chamber in waves.
-ABC News' Mariam Khan and Benjamin Siegel
Pence says he welcomes those raising objections to certification
Echoing his boss, Vice President Mike Pence is apparently supportive of the GOP senators and representatives planning to object to the Electoral College's certification of results on Wednesday.
"Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election," Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff, said in a statement Saturday night. "The Vice President welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people on January 6th."
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said earlier this week he would support objecting to a state's voting results, likely one of several battlegrounds, thereby giving the necessary senator and representative to force a vote over the legitimacy of that state's results. Several GOP representatives had previously said they supported the challenge, but Hawley was the first senator. Seven others, including Ted Cruz, said Saturday they also supported it.
But challenging the electors in any state is extremely unlikely to prevent Joe Biden's confirmation as the next president. For a new slate of electors to be admitted, the Senate and House have to vote in favor. With the House controlled by Democrats, that will not happen and the original electors will be used.
A spokesperson for Biden called the move a "stunt" on Saturday. Several Republicans, including Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Pat Toomey, have come out against the move by fellow senators.
Pence will preside over the session on Wednesday to certify the vote.
ABC News' Elizabeth Thomas contributed to this report.
Trump tweets false conspiracy claim about Georgia’s secretary of state’s nonexistent brother
President Trump, who has spent a lot of time over the past week at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, took to Twitter to attack Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s brother -- except that Raffensperger doesn’t have a brother.
In a tweet Tuesday evening just before midnight, the president called Raffensperger and Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp a “complete disaster” as he peddled his baseless claims of election fraud.
“Now it turns out that Brad R’s brother works for China, and they definitely don’t want ‘Trump’” he wrote in a tweet. “So disgusting! #MAGA”
Trump’s tweet bolsters a popular theory in far-right conspiracy circles in recent days -- that the Georgia's secretary of state is related to a Huawei Enterprise Storage Solutions executive with the same name. Huawei has been blacklisted by the Trump administration for its ties China.
Raffensperger, however, does not have a brother. He has two sisters and neither work for Huawei.
The White House has not responded to multiple requests for comment on the tweet, and has not responded to whether the president plans to take it down, issue a correction or has apologized to the Georgia secretary of state.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Adam Kelsey