It’s the first day for the new Congress under the leadership of newly elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield.

It took four days and 15 ballots for McCarthy to win that post in unprecedented fashion, and only after making massive concessions to the hard right flank of the Republican Party.

This afternoon the House has been voting to adopt the rules agreed to by McCarthy, and that hasn’t been all smooth sailing either. For more, Doug Sovern spoke a short time ago with freshman Republican Kevin Kiley of Rocklin, in Placer County, one of the newly elected House members who had to wait four days just to get sworn in.