New US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once suggested lawn mowers, not wall, would protect US border

Washington, Jan 4: California Democrat Nancy Pelosi has been elected as the Speaker of the US House of Representatives once again and this is the second time she is set to serve in the all-important post that makes the incumbent the third most powerful official in the US administration.

Pelosi, who will turn 79 in March, served as the speaker of the House between 2007 and 2011 and became the first woman and fifth overall to get elected for the role twice after the Democrats wrested back the House from the Republicans in the mid-term elections last November.

On Thursday, Pelosi reclaimed the gavel even as the moment came amid the partial shutdown of the US government in a row over funds for building a wall along the Mexico border, a pet project for President Donald Trump.

Pelosi, who said she was particularly proud to become a woman speaker of the current (116th) Congress which marks the centenary of women having the right to vote. The next year marks 100 years of women's suffrage in the US. The current House has more women than ever before in the long democratic history of the country.

Pelosi, however, has made headlines in the past for some bizarre reasons. Last year in February, she had suggested that lawn mowers were what required for securing border security for the US. She said it was necessary to mow the grass near the US-Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants from entering the US through thick vegetation, The Arizona Republic reported. She said that would be more effective than building a wall along the border as proposed by President Trump.