WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama would veto legislation approving construction of the long-stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline. 
 
 A bill that would have forced Obama's hand on the issue failed to clear Congress in its final days last year. But the Congress that convened Tuesday is Republican-controlled and new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the pipeline bill will be among the first issues voted on. 
 
 White House press secretary Josh Earnest says he does not expect Obama would sign any Keystone legislation that reaches his desk. 
 
 The spokesman says there is a "well-established" review process that is being run by the State Department that should not be undermined by legislation. 
 
 Earnest also says the pipeline's route through Nebraska also must be resolved. ||||| The new Republican-led Congress convened Tuesday with GOP leaders eager to get President Barack Obama's signature on some bills and to confront him with others. 
 
 Top items on their agenda include: 
 
 —Energy: The Senate's first bill would approve construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, designed to pump oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Republicans and some Democrats call the project a job-creator, but Obama and other Democrats consider it a pathway to worsening global warming. The House seems likely to approve the measure quickly. The GOP also plans legislation expediting U.S. natural gas exports. 
 
 —Health care: Republicans want to weaken Obama's 2010 health care overhaul. Leading off in the House: Legislation making it easier for smaller businesses to avoid providing health coverage to their workers by hiring veterans who already have government coverage. Another bill would exempt companies from covering employees who work under 40 hours weekly — up from the current 30-hour cutoff. Votes on a full repeal of the law are likely, but a certain veto by Obama awaits if it reaches him. 
 
 —Immigration: A bill financing the Department of Homeland Security lapses in late February. Republicans would extend the agency's funding but want language blocking Obama's executive actions shielding from deportation as many as 4 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Republicans also want to beef up enforcement of immigration laws while easing restrictions on incoming farm and highly skilled workers. 
 
 —Budget: House Republicans want to balance the budget in 10 years. Senate Republicans haven't embraced that timeline, but GOP leaders agree that federal spending must be curbed. Republicans will likely use must-pass spending bills to challenge Obama on anti-pollution and business regulations. 
 
 —Taxes: The GOP wants to lower income tax rates for corporations and other businesses, with lost revenue recovered by plugging unspecified loopholes. Democrats might go along if extra money is raised for building highways. 
 
 —Other votes: Speeding congressional approval of trade treaties; hindering Obama's outreach to Cuba and Iran; Obama's nominations of Loretta Lynch for attorney general and Ashton Carter for defense secretary; renewing expired terrorism risk insurance; preventing expiration of the highway construction trust fund, the Export-Import Bank and federal borrowing authority. ||||| John Boehner reelected as speaker despite throng of no votes House speaker reelected; 25 members dissent. 
 
 John Boehner was elected Tuesday to serve another two years as speaker of the House, beating back opposition from a surprisingly large group of conservatives who wanted a fresh face atop the Republican Conference. 
 
 The Ohio Republican got 216 votes out of 408 cast, while 25 dissenting Republicans voted for candidates as varied as Reps. Daniel Webster of Florida, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Jeff Sessions of Alabama. 
 
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 Boehner’s dissenters were well short of forcing a second round of voting, but the historically large number of votes against him — exceeding the 12 to 20 that had been expected — show the clear limits on his power inside the GOP Conference. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: The prisoner of Capitol Hill) 
 
 Boehner, a 24-year veteran of Washington, will lead the largest Republican House since the Great Depression, while Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell will lead the Republican Senate for the final two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. 
 
 The voting wasn’t as easy as Boehner had hoped, but his aides said the outcome was as expected. The speaker’s vote count fluctuated throughout the week, but there was no serious challenger to his role as the top Republican in the House. 
 
 Boehner also was helped by circumstance. With Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) resigning after pleading guilty to tax evasion, a dozen Democrats attending the funeral of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in Manhattan and several lawmakers unable to get to Washington because of inclement weather, only 408 members cast ballots. Boehner could have lost far more Republicans than he did and still won. 
 
 And Boehner benefited from the fact that while conservative hard-liners may always distrust him, no one running against him offered a realistic alternative for the overwhelming majority of GOP lawmakers. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Steve Scalise: Damaged goods?) 
 
 Boehner’s opposition grew Tuesday morning just a few hours before the vote. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) wrote on Facebook that he would “vote for a new speaker” after eight years of Boehner as leader. In 2013, Amash voted for Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) for speaker. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), who originally signaled he would vote for Boehner, announced he would oppose him. Huelskamp voted for Jordan in 2013. Duncan joined the “no” list on Tuesday morning. And Rep. Randy Weber, who voted for Boehner in 2013, said he would throw his support behind fellow Texan Gohmert. 
 
 “Let’s all get behind Judge Louie Gohmert for Speaker!” Weber wrote on Twitter. “He has my vote! He’s not afraid to take the fight to the president & his veto pen!” Rep. Curt Clawson (R-Fla.), who replaced Trey Radel after he was arrested for cocaine possession, also said he would vote against Boehner. 
 
 There was also some confusion about whether Webster was running for speaker. Webster was nominated and picked up a surprising number of votes (12). 
 
 To secure a third term as speaker, Boehner needed a majority of the votes from lawmakers present. 
 
 Republican dissenters had been plotting for days to oust Boehner. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie told reporters he planned to work Monday night to deny Boehner’s reelection. Almost no one believed the two declared candidates — Gohmert and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) — would be the next speaker, but the anti-Boehner group thought that if it pushed the election to a second ballot, it could sweep Boehner aside and find someone else to lead the chamber. If the vote had gone to a second ballot, something that hasn’t happened in a race for speaker since 1923, chaos could have ensued. 
 
 Boehner had enough allies — upward of 100 — who privately vowed they would never vote for another candidate. That would have made a so-called compromise candidate almost impossible to elect. Many of Boehner’s allies had said for months that they would keep voting for Boehner until the opposition subsides. 
 
 Several sources said Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) was helping lead the effort to push the vote to a second ballot, though neither he nor his chief of staff responded to several emails. Other GOP members involved with trying to push Boehner out included Reps. Dave Brat of Virginia, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Steve King of Iowa, Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma, Walter Jones of North Carolina and freshman Gary Palmer of Alabama. 
 
 Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) predicted that Boehner would be reelected, but he noted that the opposition to the Ohio Republican means Boehner’s problems with his conservative hard-liners haven’t gone away despite the big GOP victories on Election Day. 
 
 “I’m not the whip on their side, but my presumption is that the speaker is going to prevail and I think the speaker, like any leader, has to deal with any factions in his party, some of which who are more cooperative than others,” Hoyer said Tuesday morning. “You see in the Republican Party a very hard-line, ideological rigidity.” 
 
 Lauren French contributed to this report. 
 
 Follow @politico ||||| Reid, bandaged but mending, won't be in office 
 
 Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid missed the first day of the 114th Congress as he continues to recover from a concussion and other injuries sustained in an accident last week at his home in Henderson, Nevada. 
 
 Reid, the incoming Senate minority leader, had multiple broken bones in his face, three broken ribs and a concussion, spokesman Adam Jentleson said Tuesday. He was exercising Thursday when a piece of equipment broke, causing the 75-year-old to fall. Reid was hospitalized after the accident and released Friday afternoon. 
 
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 “Senator Reid is in Washington but on orders from his doctors he will not come into the office so that his injuries can continue to heal,” Jentleson said in a statement. Reid had been expected to return to the Capitol on Tuesday. 
 
 Later Tuesday, his office released a video of Reid at home, where the senator — a former boxer — didn’t get his injuries by fighting Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather. 
 
 “The doctors have told me I better take it easy,” Reid said in the video. “I had a presentation all made to start the new Congress. I’ve been doing new Congresses for, this will be my 33rd year. And I really have some homesickness, for lack of a better description.” 
 
 His office said Reid has continued to work throughout his recovery, holding meetings with fellow senators and aides and talking with President Barack Obama several times. Aides did not give a date when Reid is expected to return; he is listening to doctors and taking it day by day, his office said. 
 
 A photo posted on his Twitter account Tuesday showed Reid, dressed casually and with a bandage over his right eye, at home with his top deputies, Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York and Patty Murray of Washington state. 
 
 Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, will fill in for Reid on the floor until the Nevada senator returns to the Capitol. 
 
 Authors: ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Congress has convened with Republicans ready to take charge of the House and Senate. 
 
 Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell was poised to become the new Senate majority leader. In the House, John Boehner was widely expected to win another term as speaker. 
 
 The Senate includes 13 freshmen, and the House has 58 freshmen. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — New Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told his colleagues that "a lot of hard work awaits." McConnell took the helm of the Senate Tuesday after Republicans formally assumed the majority. 
 
 Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. pauses outside his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Jan. 5, 2015, as he prepares for the opening of the 114th Congress under GOP control.... (Associated Press) 
 
 McConnell's first order of business was to shepherd through several routine resolutions. One of them named Utah Republican Orrin Hatch as the Senate's president pro tempore, making him third in the line of presidential succession. 
 
 In brief remarks, McConnell said that along with the work "many important opportunities await too." He has said that the Senate's first bill would approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast. 
 
 Becoming majority leader has been the Kentucky senator's longtime goal after 30 years of service in the Senate. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans assumed full control of Congress on Tuesday for the first time in eight years in a day of pomp, circumstance and raw politics beneath the Capitol Dome. "We will get to work right away," pledged House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. 
 
 Sen.-elect Joni Ernst R-Iowa, right, talks with a reporter on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, before being sworn-in for the 114th Congress in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (Associated Press) 
 
 People walk in the snow toward the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, on the start of the 114th Congress in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (Associated Press) 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, center, shakes hands and he walks past Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, right, as members of the House of Representatives gather for opening session of the 114th Congress... (Associated Press) 
 
 Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, left, holds his daughter, Andrea Elena Castro, as he stand with his brother, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro as they join other members of the House... (Associated Press) 
 
 Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. pauses outside his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Jan. 5, 2015, as he prepares for Tuesday's opening of the 114th Congress under GOP... (Associated Press) 
 
 As the first snowfall of the winter blanketed Washington, Congress convened at noon as required by the Constitution. 
 
 On the Senate floor, newcomers mixed with veterans as Vice President Joe Biden swore in senators in groups of four. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky ascended to majority leader, his elevation endorsed by rank-and-file Republicans last year after they won control of the chamber from the Democrats. 
 
 Across the Capitol in the House, a similar scene unfolded as familiar faces and new ones crowded the aisles and lawmakers of both parties recited the Pledge of Allegiance. But in the House, there was an element of slight suspense as Speaker John Boehner of Ohio faced a tea party-backed effort to unseat him, though it looked certain to fall short. 
 
 Seeking unity despite the internal party dissension, the GOP moved swiftly toward a veto showdown with President Barack Obama over the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline, a taste of things to come in divided government. 
 
 At the White House, Obama planned to meet with the new congressional leadership next week as both sides positioned themselves for two years of clashes and, perhaps, occasional cooperation that will help shape the outcomes of the 2016 presidential and congressional elections. 
 
 McConnell replaces Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, who was a surprise no-show from the day's proceedings after he injured himself exercising. 
 
 Reid, who broke several ribs and bones in his face when a piece of equipment snapped last week, said his doctor had ordered him to work from home Tuesday. A photo Reid posted to Twitter showed him with his right eye taped over as he met with lawmakers. 
 
 Newcomers and veterans alike lifted their hands to swear the oath of office, many with spouses, children and grandchildren looking on to witness the biennial display of pageantry. The spectacle drew political veterans back to the Capitol as former Vice President Walter Mondale, a Democrat, and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Republican, mixed with lawmakers on the Senate floor. 
 
 McConnell and Boehner both were to deliver remarks as they began laying down markers for legislative battles ahead. 
 
 First, Boehner had to survive his re-election as speaker — the main event on any opening day's agenda. Tea party-backed Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Ted Yoho and Daniel Webster of Florida were nominated by colleagues as challengers to Boehner, and more than a dozen Republicans announced they would oppose Boehner. 
 
 The ranks of the opponents grew in the hours ahead of Tuesday's vote, but appeared far short of the number needed to place Boehner's election in jeopardy. Many lawmakers dismissed the challenge as a needless distraction at a moment when the party should be showing voters it can lead. 
 
 "It's time to put all this silliness behind and move on," said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn. "We're on probation. If we don't perform ... (voters) can make a pivot in a heartbeat." 
 
 Nor did any of the rebels predict they would succeed in toppling the 65-year-old Boehner. Instead, they said the current high command wasn't conservative enough. 
 
 "I think we need to articulate a vision for the country, a vision for this conference," Yoho told reporters late Monday. "I threw my hat into the ring so people could have a choice and an alternative." 
 
 But Boehner's hand is strong after the Republicans' sweeping electoral triumph. The party will hold 246 House seats in the new Congress, to 188 for the Democrats, the biggest GOP majority in nearly 70 years. 
 
 Coupled with the commanding majority was word of the first retirement — New York Republican Chris Gibson announced he would step down at the end of his term. 
 
 The intraparty leadership struggle underscored the political peril facing Republicans as they looked ahead to two-house control of Congress. Yet the evident ability to pass the Keystone pipeline legislation showed their potential to advance an agenda. 
 
 Votes in a Senate committee and on the House floor were scheduled for later this week on the pipeline, which passed the House but died in a Democratic-led filibuster in the Senate late last year. Now, Republicans appear to have more than enough votes to clear it through the Senate as well, given the Republican pickup of nine seats in the elections. 
 
 While Obama has not said if he will reject the measure, White House spokesman Josh Earnest outlined a series of concerns with the pipeline. 
 
 But Republicans stand ready to cast the measure as a bipartisan jobs bill of the type that should be signed into law. 
 
 "There's a lot we can get done together if the president puts his famous pen to use signing bills rather than vetoing legislation his liberal allies don't like," McConnell said late last year. 
 
 Earnest, meanwhile, was less ambiguous about another issue. 
 
 Referring to an assertion by a Louisiana reporter, he said Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the third-ranking House GOP leader, had once described himself as "David Duke without the baggage." Earnest also said Scalise's presence in the leadership of House Republicans "says a lot about who they are." 
 
 Scalise spoke more than a dozen years ago to a white supremacist organization founded by Duke. The lawmaker said recently the appearance was a mistake and said he condemns the group's views. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers David Espo, Nedra Pickler, Chuck Babington and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.
– The 114th Congress has convened with solid Republican majorities in both houses, Mitch McConnell as the new Senate majority leader, and John Boehner retaining his gavel in the House despite a Tea Party challenge. In what the AP calls "a day of pomp, circumstance, and raw politics," Joe Biden swore in new senators while Boehner loyalists moved to cut off what Politico seems to think is a small but growing opposition within his own ranks. Things to know about the 114th: Legislation: The GOP is looking to hit the ground running with legislation that approves construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, weakens ObamaCare, extends funding for Homeland Security at the cost of blocking President Obama's executive action on immigration, and cuts spending. More here. About that Keystone legislation: The White House wasted no time today in saying it would veto the Keystone bill in its current form. McConnell slid into his dream job: Per the AP, he said that "a lot of hard work awaits," but that "many important opportunities await too." Harry Reid stayed home: Reid, who hurt himself exercising last week, missed seeing McConnell take his old job. He "is in Washington, but on orders from his doctors he will not come into the office so that his injuries can continue to heal," a spokesman said, per Politico. Newbies: The Senate has 13 freshmen, while the House has 58, notes the AP.