US Speaker Pelosi addresses Ghana’s Parliament Wednesday

The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, Ms Nancy Patricia Pelosi, is scheduled to address Ghana’s Parliament on Wednesday, July 31, 2019.

This was made known by the Majority Leader of Ghana’s Parliament Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu when he presented the business of the House on Friday.

Brief profile

Ms Pelosi is a member of the Democratic Party. She has served as speaker of the United States House of Representatives since January 2019.

She is the only woman to have held that office and is the highest-ranking elected woman in United States history.

As speaker of the House, she is second in the presidential line of succession, immediately after the vice president.

First elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi is currently in her 17th term as a congresswoman, representing California’s 12th congressional district (since 2013), which consists of four-fifths of the city and county of San Francisco.

She initially represented the 5th district (1987–1993), and then, when district boundaries were redrawn after the 1990 Census, the eighth district (1993–2013). She has led House Democrats since 2003 (the first woman to lead a party in Congress), serving twice each as the speaker (2007–2011 and 2019–present) and as House Minority.

Leader (2003–2007 and 2011–2019) depending upon whether Democrats or Republicans held the majority; she has also served as House minority whip (2002–2003).

In the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats won control of the House.

Afterwards, when the 116th Congress convened on January 3, 2019, Ms Pelosi was elected speaker for the second time, becoming the first former speaker to return to the post since Sam Rayburn in 1955.