• McClatchy newspapers notes that the North Carolina congressional delegation’s clout in the 114th Congress should increase.
• Two Republicans in that delegation — Reps. Walter Jones (3rd District) and Mark Meadows (11th District) — did not vote for Ohio Republican John Boehner, who was elected Tuesday to a third term as speaker of the House.
• New U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, predicts the 114th Congress will be active, saying the Republican-led Senate both will pass its own measures and stop acting as a roadblock to House-enacted bills. Tillis also says he will work on the sorts of regulatory reform at the federal level that the General Assembly passed under his watch in North Carolina.
• Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-1st District, was sworn in as chairman of the 46-member Congressional Black Caucus — the largest contingent in the caucus’ history. Joining him is freshman Rep. Alma Adams of the 12th District and Utah freshman Mia Love, the only Republican in the nominally nonpartisan caucus.
• Time Warner Cable News reports that residents of the coastal counties represented by freshman Rep. David Rouzer, R-7th, are adjusting to a new member of Congress who does not hail from the region. Rouzer, from Johnston County, succeeds Democrat Mike McIntyre of Robeson County, who represented the district for nearly two decades.
• He hoped to be called “congressman,” but instead he’ll go by “your honor.” Former Rockingham County District Attorney Phil Berger Jr., who lost last year’s GOP primary for the 6th U.S. Congressional District to Rep. Mark Walker, earlier this week was named an administrative law judge. Berger, son of the Senate Republican leader, will be based in Raleigh but hear cases around the state.
