Lou Barletta, a former road line-painter who became Hazleton’s mayor, and Tom Marino, a former bakery manager who became U.S. attorney, took new steps into the nation’s future together Wednesday and officially gained new titles: United States congressmen.

Mr. Marino and Mr. Barletta were sworn in as Northeast Pennsylvania’s newest representatives in Congress, joining a U.S. House packed with 96 new members, all but nine of them Republicans who as a group have vowed to divert the nation from what they consider the wrong path set by President Barack Obama.

Mr. Barletta, 54, and Mr. Marino, 58, of Lycoming Twp. in Lycoming County, took the oath on the House floor at 2:17 p.m., just after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., officially handed the gavel to Ohio Republican Rep. John Boehner, whose backers – including Mr. Barletta and Mr. Marino – officially elected him as the new speaker.