Escaping D.C.'s Real Life Political Drama With a Fictional One

The 116th Congress was sworn in this week and Democrats regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in eight years. It also marks the first time that President Trump will face a divided Congress and the intense scrutiny, oversight, and push-back that comes with it.

This new Congress is the most diverse in U.S. history, and on Thursday the first former refugee, the first Native-American women, and the first Muslim women were all sworn into the House of Representatives. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi reclaimed the speakership, and as The New York Times said became "the highest-ranking and most powerful elected woman in American political history."

This hour on Politics with Amy Walter, we'll hear from incoming freshman members of Congress as well as more senior members with decades of experience on how they're thinking about this next legislative session. We'll hear from reporters and experts who study Congress on what we should expect this session and some big ideas on how to make it work better.

Guests:

Freshman members of Congress: Rep. Max Rose, (D-NY), Rep. Denver Riggleman, (R-VA), Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) and Rep. Bryan Steil, (R-WI).

Senior Members: Rep. Steny Hoyer, (D-MD) Majority Leader, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) Chairman of House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) Chairman of House Rules Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, (D-MA) Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and Rep. John Yarmuth, (D-KY) is the chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Lee Drutman is a senior fellow in the Political Reform Program at New America.

Lisa Desjardins covers the U.S. capital as a Correspondent for PBS NewsHour.

Molly Reynolds is Senior Fellow of Governance at The Brookings Institution.

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