[JURIST] Members of the 110th Congress sworn in Thursday are preparing for votes [calendar, PDF] on numerous pieces of key legislation scheduled by incoming Democratic leaders of the new US House of Representatives [official website] for their first 100 legislative hours in office beginning next Tuesday. Most notably, incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) [official website] and incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) [official website] have slated votes for next week on implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission [official website], progressively raising the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour, and expanding embryonic stem cell research [JURIST news archive]. Democrats plan to take action on these items, fulfilling their pre-election, 100-hour pledge [AP report], in advance of President Bush's State of the Union Address scheduled for Jan. 23. The New York Times has more. The Boston Globe has additional coverage.

President Bush previously vetoed [JURIST report] the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act [PDF text; HR 810 summary] in July after its passage by the House [JURIST report] and Senate [JURIST report]. Democrats now hope they will have the two-thirds supermajority votes needed to survive a presidential veto.