Good Thursday morning, I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your Political Playbook Audio Briefing.

Stay tuned after the show for a message from the American Petroleum Institute.

And I'm Anna Palmer. Nancy Pelosi will become the 63rd Speaker of the House today,

a triumphant return to the third-ranking position in American government after eight years in the

political wilderness. Pelosi returns to the

speakership in a uniquely powerful position, especially when considering that many Democrats just

waged a campaign that include sharp criticisms of her. A 78-year-old California Democrat just vanquished

a group of her challengers with surprising precision and speed.

Most House watchers expected that today she'd be in the middle of a brawl for the

speakership on the House floor. Instead, she's waltzing toward grabbing the gavel with little effort.

And she is now going toe to toe with President Trump in the middle of a government shutdown,

which is now entered its 13th day. Pelosi is the first member of Congress to return to the speakership since Sam Rayburn

did in 1955. She'll have challenges. She has a fiery left wing, which is already beginning to tug at

her shirt's sleeve. At least two backbench Democrats, Rocana of California and Alexandria Ocasio

Cortez of New York, are threatening to vote

against the rules package, a party-line measure that lays out how the chamber will be governed.

They do not like the PAYGO rules, which mandate the government must pay for spending,

although these rules are sometimes waived.

Wait until fights over Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal, Medicare for all, and governing with Trump.

First up for Democrats, Representative John Sarbanes of Maryland, chair of the party's

Democracy Reform Task Force, is expected to file House Democrats' first major legislative item,

H.R.1, which they've named the For the People Act, immediately after being sworn in. The goals

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