Ocasio-Cortez Sets Record as She Takes the Gavel

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez achieved a first when she briefly presided over the House on Friday. That made her, at age 29, the youngest woman to do so, Reuters reports. The speaker's job is Nancy Pelosi's, of course, but when she's away, the gavel rotates among members of the majority party. "That was my first time presiding," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters afterward. "And it's exciting. It's certainly a view. I wish we could, I wish we were allowed to take photos." C-Span did record the moment, however.

It wasn't an action-packed session. Ocasio-Cortez presided for about an hour over "special orders"—short speeches by members at the end of the day that usually are about an issue in their districts. She later tweeted about the experience, thanking her constituents for putting her there and saying, "This House belongs to all of us." (More Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stories.)