WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democrats Thursday took control of both houses of Congress with plans to quickly raise the minimum wage and toughen lobbying rules.
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will accept her new position "in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship," according to an advance text of her remarks. "With today's convening of the 110th Congress, we begin anew."
The Democratic takeover after spending most of the past dozen years in the minority comes as President Bush echoes congressional calls for bipartisanship -- but with indications of partisan fights to come.
Pelosi, a California Democrat, becomes the first woman to hold that post and Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, takes over as Senate majority leader. (Watch to see what the Democratic-led Congress might accomplish )
"Let us join together in the first 100 hours to make this Congress the most honest and open in history," Pelosi's text said.
Amid bursts of applause, new members of Congress took oaths of office in ceremonies on Thursday in the Capitol.
Pelosi was escorted into the House chamber by her grandchildren. She greeted colleagues with hugs and handshakes as her family walked beside her.
Exit polls showed that rising discontent over corruption scandals and the war in Iraq helped drive voters to hand Democrats control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994.
"Nowhere were the American people more clear about the need for a new direction than in Iraq," said Pelosi's text. "The American people rejected an open-ended obligation to a war without end."
A national poll released this week showed Democrats have strong support for nearly all the measures they want to pass in their first days in charge. But Democrats' thin hold on power ensures that any successful legislation must have at least some GOP support.
The Senate is divided 51-49, with hospitalized South Dakota Democrat Tim Johnson recovering weeks after suffering a brain hemorrhage.
Before the House and Senate were called to order, Reid invited both Democrats and Republicans to a rare closed-door conference Thursday in the Old Senate Chamber in hopes of setting a bipartisan mood after years of political rancor.
A memo from Reid to colleagues lays out the Senate's agenda, which closely follows planned votes in the House, starting with ethics and lobbying reform, a minimum wage hike, reforming the Medicare prescription drug program, acting on recommendations of the 9/11 commission and full funding of embryonic stem cell research.
"Our efforts are going to be to work in a bipartisan basis in an open fashion to solve the problems of the American people," Reid said after the conference, according to The Associated Press.
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the meeting gave senators in both parties "a chance to express some of their quiet frustrations [about] the level of partisanship that we've witnessed in recent years," according to AP.
After passage of a series of routine resolutions -- including elevating 89-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, as President Pro Tempore, third in the line of presidential succession -- the Senate floor will open up for speeches about the upcoming session.
Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters that Democrats would move quickly on rules changes.
"On Thursday and Friday, we're going to adopt rules that will change the way the people's house operates to ensure its integrity, to ensure its openness and to ensure its transparency," Hoyer said Wednesday.
Tighter restrictions on spending earmarks, lobbying, gifts and travel will be proposed, Democratic House leaders said. (View what House Democrats pledge to pass in the first 100 legislative hours)
A $2.10 hourly increase in the minimum wage to $7.25 is among six bills Democrats pledged to advance in their first 100 hours of making new laws next week, after members are seated and committees are organized.
The minimum wage was last increased in 1997. Democrats want to phase increases over two years, a proposal that has drawn conditional support from President Bush. (Minimum wages by state)
But they may face a tougher hurdle in efforts to repeal Bush's ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. In the only veto of his presidency to date, Bush killed a similar bill that passed with bipartisan support last year -- and White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday that the president's position has not changed.
The schedule for the 100 legislative hours stretches from Tuesday through January 18, five days ahead of Bush's State of the Union address.
Bush: Avoid 'stalemate'
In a statement in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Bush urged Congress to make the tax cuts passed during his administration permanent and grant him line-item veto power, which would allow the president to cut specific spending from a bill without killing the entire measure.
And in an opinion piece published in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Bush wrote that Democrats now have a responsibility to avoid creating a "stalemate" by passing bills "that are simply political statements."
"If a different approach is taken, the next two years can be fruitful ones for our nation," Bush wrote. (Full story)
CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.
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