Updated at 5:39 p.m.
Tuesday afternoon marked a passing of the torch for Vermont’s three-member congressional delegation, as U.S. Sen. Peter Welch and U.S. Rep.-elect Becca Balint took their first actions of the 118th Congress, and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy concluded his historic 48-year career in the Senate.
Welch took the oath of office shortly after noon, becoming Vermont’s first new senator in 16 years. Balint participated in multiple leadership votes, but her swearing-in was delayed while House Republicans sparred over who should serve as speaker. When she is finally sworn in, Balint will become the first woman and the first openly gay person to represent Vermont in Congress.
Welch, a Democrat, is no stranger to the halls of Congress, having served 16 years as Vermont’s sole representative to the U.S. House. But on Tuesday, he graduated to the upper chamber, where he is now a junior senator to his independent colleague, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Leahy has retired after nearly five decades in office, and Welch is quite literally taking his place: He told VTDigger on Tuesday morning that he will now occupy Leahy’s desk in the Senate chamber.
“I feel terrific,” Welch said in a phone interview shortly before taking the oath of office on Tuesday. “This is the culmination of just an incredible decision that the American people made, and I’m part of it, getting elected to the Senate. The decision that American people made in this last election was in favor of democracy. I mean, that’s what was on the ballot.”
With Welch’s decisive victory in Vermont and Democrats’ ability to clinch a narrow Senate majority, Welch said, “Vermont overwhelmingly renewed its commitment to democracy, and the country did as well.”
Meanwhile, Balint’s swearing-in was delayed thanks to House Republicans’ inability to coalesce around a nominee for speaker. Republicans in November clinched a narrow House majority, but 19 rogue Republicans derailed the nomination of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., despite a majority of the GOP conference supporting McCarthy as speaker.
Any nominee for speaker needed 218 votes to win on Tuesday, and by the time the House adjourned Tuesday evening, McCarthy had thrice failed to secure a majority. The House ultimately adjourned without electing a speaker, and was scheduled to return to the floor for a fourth vote Wednesday at 12 p.m.
New members of the House, including Balint, will not be sworn in until a speaker is elected. Balint, along with the entire Democratic Caucus, unanimously voted three times for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the House minority leader.
After casting her third vote for Jeffries, Balint retreated to a phone booth in the House cloak room and told VTDigger that she was witnessing history. The last time an election for House speaker required multiple rounds of voting was 1923.
“The history teacher in me loves it,” she quipped. “The member waiting to get sworn in is a little anxious about it.”
Asked how confident she is in the House’s ability to be productive over the next two years after a hard fight for speaker, Balint said Tuesday’s votes were “very concerning.”
“I think many of us (Democrats) are taking stock right now about who are going to be those voices on the Republican side that we can work with,” she said. “But it’s really not clear at all today, given that they can’t coalesce around a leader.”
Without a speaker in place, unable to get sworn in, Balint is in limbo. Her parents, wife and children are in D.C. with her, waiting to watch her take the oath of office.
Balint also can’t receive her committee assignments until a speaker is in place. She said on Tuesday that her wish list committees are Financial Services, where she could craft legislation on housing and consumer protections, or Agriculture, where she could have a hand in crafting this year’s Farm Bill.
Her “dream come true” assignment, though, would be the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where she could work under Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., she said. Such an assignment would mirror Welch, who served on the Oversight Committee starting in 2007.
While Tuesday marked a new beginning for Welch, it was the conclusion of a career for Leahy. The now-former Senate president pro tempore presided over the chamber for his final time Tuesday morning, banging the gavel to close the 117th Congress and his own Senate career — the third-longest in U.S. history.
For his final action in the chamber, Leahy escorted Welch to the front of the Senate chamber Tuesday afternoon and stood behind him as Welch took his oath of office.
For Welch, it was a full circle moment: He volunteered on Leahy’s first Senate campaign in 1974, when Welch was a young public defender working in Vermont and Leahy was considered a long-shot contender. Welch would go on to serve two stints representing Windsor County in the Vermont Senate, starting in 1981, and two stints as state senate president pro tempore. He moved to the U.S. House in 2007.
Over the course of 48 years in the Senate, Leahy garnered significant seniority and power, as well as coveted chairmanships. He reached his pinnacle of influence when he became the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee in 2017. The committee holds the government’s purse strings, and in his leadership position Leahy was able to deliver billions of federal dollars to Vermont over the years.
Asked how he would fill Leahy’s shoes when it comes to federal funding, Welch told VTDigger that “nobody can do what Sen. Leahy has done.”
“He’s been here 48 years and as chair of the Appropriations Committee, he’s used that position extremely well and to the great benefit of Vermont,” Welch said.
“But two things,” Welch added. First, the programs Leahy has engineered to funnel money into Vermont are durable, Welch said, “and Bernie and I are going to do all we can to make certain that they stay strong and durable.” Second, Welch said, he has already begun work to preserve one of Leahy’s legacies: small-state minimums, which guarantee that less populated states such as Vermont receive a basic amount of funding in appropriations cycles.
Senators have not yet received their committee assignments, and Welch declined to specify which assignments he is gunning for, saying those conversations are between him and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story misstated the year Peter Welch joined the House Oversight Committee.