SPRINGFIELD - It won't be long after the new Congress and its two new central Illinois members are sworn in Tuesday that they'll have to begin confronting the country's serious economic strife.

Democrat Debbie Halvorson of Crete and Republican Aaron Schock of Peoria will begin their first terms in Congress Tuesday morning, two months after prevailing on Election Day.

Halvorson enters as a member of the Democratic majority, representing the 11th Congressional District. Halvorson survived a campaign against Republican Marty Ozinga that included suggestions that she was tied to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Since being elected, Halvorson said she traveled the district, which spans from the Bloomington-Normal area to Chicago's south suburbs. The district has been represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller since 1994.

"Everywhere I went, people talked about how they were hurting," Halvorson said.

In the next month or so, federal lawmakers might mull whether to try to ease that hurting by approving an expensive public works plan that would put people to work repairing roads, bridges and buildings across the country.

At age 27, Schock will be the youngest of those federal lawmakers.

"It's the story of the day and it goes away," he said. "I'm an equal member with an equal vote."

Schock enters Congress representing the 18th Congressional District, a sprawling central Illinois district that includes Logan, Macon, Tazewell and Woodford counties, among others.

Schock takes over for Republican U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, who has been tapped to become part of President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet.

Schock campaigned occasionally with LaHood, who is retiring from Congress after seven terms. Halvorson, on the other hand, she said she hasn't talked to her predecessor since Election Day, but said her staff has touched base with Weller's staff.

Democrat U.S. Rep. Phil Hare of Rock Island, will be sworn in to a second term Tuesday. He said the country's economic situation means there's more pressure on lawmakers this year than at the start of his first term.

"Yeah, there is," Hare said. "But it's pressure in a good way."

In addition to Halvorson and Schock, Democrat Bill Foster of Geneva will begin his first full term in Congress. Foster won a special election in 2008 to succeed former U.S. Speaker Dennis Hastert in northern Illinois' 14th Congressional District.

And another Illinois newcomer will go to Washington, D.C. soon. Former U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel's seat in Congress will be up for election soon after he took a job as Obama's chief of staff.

All of those Illinois changes in Congress come against the backdrop of what's happening with the seat Obama vacated. Roland Burris, the former state attorney general appointed by scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich, also will be in the national spotlight when new members are sworn into office.

While federal lawmakers are sworn in Tuesday, the presidential inauguration is Jan. 20.