US President Donald Trump now faces a House of Representatives dominated by Democrats - and one with more diversity than ever before.
One hundred new House members, including 63 Democrats who won election in November, were sworn in on Thursday for America's 116th Congress.
Democrats, who hold a 235-199 majority in the 435-member lower chamber, elected Representative Nancy Pelosi as house speaker, a position she held from 2007-2011.
There are more women than ever before, and a new generation of Muslims, Latinos, Native Americans and African-Americans is creating a House more aligned with the population of the United States.
However, the Republican side in the House is still made up mostly of white men, and in the Senate Republicans bolstered their ranks in the majority.
The shift in power in the House comes in the midst of a partial government shutdown that has lasted nearly two weeks.
Republicans and Democrats have been squabbling over spending bills to keep about one-quarter of the government running after hitting an impasse on President Donald Trump's demand to fund a border wall with Mexico.
Wasting no time, Democrats in the House passed a package of bills to reopen the government from its partial shutdown - without the $US5 billion demanded by Trump for his wall.
"We're not doing a wall. Does anyone have any doubt that we're not doing a wall?" Pelosi told reporters on Thursday night.
Asked if she would give Trump one dollar for a wall to reopen the government, Pelosi said: "One dollar? Yeah, one dollar. The fact is a wall is an immorality. It's not who we are as a nation."
The bills have no chance in the Senate, where Republicans say they will consider only legislation that has Trump's support.
In the Senate, Trump's Republicans have a comparatively comfortable majority of 53 to 47 seats after eight new members were sworn in.
However the Republican majority in the upper chamber is short of the 60 votes necessary to pass budget bills under Senate rules.
Trump made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room to comment on the topic.
He told reporters he has received overwhelming support for his stance on building a wall, his foremost campaign promise.
"Essentially, we need protection in our country," said Trump, who maintains that criminals, gang members and drugs pour over the border. "We are going to make it good. The people of our country want it."
He then invited officials with the National Border Patrol Council to help make his case for building a wall on the US-Mexico border.
"Anywhere that you look where we have built walls they work," said Brandon Judd, president of the council. "They have been an absolute necessity for border patrol agents in securing the border."
With Associated Press
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