Matt Baker & AP | LaSalle News Tribune

The House and Senate ushered in a new Congress on Thursday, hewing to tradition and hailing one its own who returned a year after being felled by a stroke.
The 113th Congress convened at noon EST, the constitutionally mandated time, with pomp, pageantry — and of course, politics — on both sides of the Capitol.
 

In the Senate, Vice President Joe Biden swore in 12 new members elected in November, lawmakers who won another term and South Carolina Republican Tim Scott. 
 

Shortly before the session, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who had been absent for the past year while recovering from a stroke, slowly walked up the 45 steps to the Senate, with Biden nearby and the Senate leaders at the top of the stairs to greet him.
 

Members of the Illinois congressional delegation and senators stood on the steps.
 

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome back Senator Kirk today,” said U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) “He’s been greatly missed here in D.C. and I know my colleagues and I are really looking forward to having him back.”
 

As Kirk entered the building, resting on a cane, Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) helped Kirk take off his coat. The senator said he was glad to be back.
 

In the House, members were electing the speaker, with John Boehner poised to win another term. The speaker will then swear in the lawmakers in the afternoon.
 

While the dozens of eager freshmen are determined to change Washington, they face the harsh reality of another stretch of divided government. The traditions come against the backdrop of a mean season that closed out an angry election year.
 

A deal to avert the “fiscal cliff” of big tax increases and spending cuts split the parties in New Year’s Day votes, and the House’s failure to vote on a Superstorm Sandy aid package before adjournment prompted GOP recriminations against the leadership.
 

“There’s a lot of hangover obviously from the last few weeks of this session into the new one, which always makes a fresh start a lot harder,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said.
 

Speaking with the press prior to his swearing in, Kinzinger, whose district includes the La Salle-Peru area, also addressed some of the concerns regarding the previous Congress.
 

“With all the frustration the American people have with the dysfunction in Washington, I think there’s a silver lining,” he said. “And that’s that more and more folks are speaking out, they’re becoming engaged in the day-to-day issues of Washington.”
 

He went on to say he believes such public involvement enables legislators to have open discussions about the most important issues.
 

 Kinzinger, who begins his first term representing the newly formed 16th district — he previously represented the 11th — re-affirmed his first-term pledge to remain accessible to those in his district and to attempt working with legislators of all political parties.
 

“I think our problems in government are clear,” Kinzinger said. “We have to quit spending more money than we take in, we have to focus our efforts toward growing the private sector, where jobs are created, and Washington must pass a budget and get serious about things like comprehensive tax reform.”
 

Regarding his vote in support of the recently approved fiscal cliff deal, Kinzinger said it wasn’t a “phenomenally negotiated package,” but it was “the best we had presented to us.”
 

“Because on January first everybody’s tax rates went up. I fear the economy would have spun into recession,” he said.
 

He also discussed the debt ceiling debate in Congress.
 

Eighty-two freshmen join the House — 47 Democrats and 35 Republicans. Women will total 81 in the 435-member body — 62 Democrats and 19 Republicans.