All 435 House Representatives and 33 Senators ( Class I ) were elected in the November 7, 2006 congressional elections. The Democrats achieved a majority in both houses for the first time since 1995 - while the President of the United States, George W. Bush , who was in office until January 2009 , belonged to the Republican Party . The Congress met in the American capital Washington, DC
January 27, 2007: President Bush holds the State of the Union Address 2007 before Congress, in which he proposes, among other things, a comprehensive military operation to end the Iraq war .
October 7, 2007: The Dow Jones Industrial Average of the largest publicly traded companies closes with a record 14,164.53 points. By March 2009, it fell more than half to 6,547.05 after a nationwide housing bubble burst in late 2007 and the United States slipped into recession for the first time since 2001.
September 15, 2008: The fourth largest investment bank Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy is the largest in US history by debt level. It has an impact on financial markets around the world.
November 4, 2008: In the congressional elections, the Democrats win a majority in both chambers. The Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wins the election against the Republican candidate John McCain .
August 5, 2007 - The Protect America Act of 2007 allowed the surveillance of foreign targets without a court order who are overseas who are believed by intelligence agencies to pose a threat to the security of the United States.
May 21, 2008 - The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibited health insurers and employers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of genetic characteristics alone.
October 3, 2008 - The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act authorized the United States Department of the Treasury to buy out risky bonds, particularly unsafe bonds for private real estate, and to fund financial institutions directly to help maintain liquidity. The total volume of the authorization was $ 700 billion. At the same time, tax cuts for companies and the middle class were also passed.
Changes compared to the 109th Congress resulted primarily from the changed majority structure: The Democrat Nancy Pelosi , a minority leader since 2003, was elected as the first woman in the history of the United States to be the speaker , replacing the Republican Dennis Hastert , who took over Held post since 1999. With the Republicans, both John Boehner , majority and now minority leader since February 2006, and Roy Blunt , majority, now minority whip since 2003 , kept their posts. With the Democrats, the previous Whip, Steny Hoyer , rose to the group leader, while Jim Clyburn took over his previous post.
bioguide.congress.gov (by entering 110 under Year OR Congress: you get a list of the members of the 110th Congress with a link to the official biographies; English)
↑ The 7th constituency of Indiana and the 14th constituency of Illinois were vacant at short notice after the death of Julia Carson (D) and the resignation of Dennis Hastert (R). On March 8, 2008, Hastert's successor was elected in a special election.
↑ The independent candidate Bernie Sanders was elected Senator for the state of Vermont. The Democratic Party refrained from nominating an opponent. Re-elected Senator Joe Lieberman ran as an independent candidate against the Democratic and Republican Party candidates. Both supported the democratic parliamentary group in the newly constituted Senate.
