The House and the Senate are slightly out of lockstep about delivering President-elect Donald Trump’s legislative win in the first 100 days.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the two bodies plan to pass a single reconciliation bill.
“We’ve made a lot of campaign promises, President Trump did as well, and reconciliation is the way to get it done,” Johnson told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Morning Futures” Sunday.
The Senate’s filibuster rule requires 60 votes to advance most legislation. Because Republicans have a smaller majority in the Senate, 53 to 47, they need seven Democrats for a bill to pass. However, the reconciliation process allows the Senate to pass certain tax and government funding-related bills through a simple majority — and that’s what congressional Republicans plan to do.
Johnson said Trump would prefer a single bill that includes immigration, energy and tax reform. But his counterparts in the Senate have other ideas. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., hopes to split the priorities and pass two separate bills: One that tackles immigration, and another that takes on taxes.
What is Speaker Johnson’s plan?
“Members of Congress are getting to work on one powerful Bill that will bring our Country back, and make it greater than ever before,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Republicans must unite, and quickly deliver these Historic Victories for the American People. Get smart, tough, and send the Bill to my desk to sign as soon as possible.”
Politico reported that Senate Republicans were lobbying for Trump to support the two-step plan over the weekend, but the president-elect hasn’t publicly welcomed the plan.
Johnson said one reconciliation bill “(gives) us a little bit more time to negotiate that and get it right.”
On one hand, unifying the party around two separate bills could prove to be a big challenge with small margins and could hike up the overall price tag. On the other hand, it will take time to compile such a complex bill with many moving parts. Johnson said he expects the bill to be ready by early April before it heads to the president’s desk for his signature.
Congress must pass a tax package since many provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed during Trump’s first term, are set to expire this year. Republicans also want to address the crisis at the southern border, where an overwhelming number of migrants from around the world illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration. They are also impatiently waiting to undo the Biden administration’s clean energy policies. By splitting the priorities into two, they can get the ball rolling quicker.
Urgency is key, or so argue Senate Republicans.
What are Senate Republicans asking for?
Thune told reporters last month he wants Republicans to make quick moves on their predetermined priorities, like border, defense and energy, before prioritizing another package that would address the expiring tax cuts, as per NBC News.
“But I think we can do both,” Thune said. “We’ve got an opportunity to have a couple of different chances at a reconciliation package that would achieve all those objectives.”
Incoming Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Fox News’ “Morning Futures” Sunday expressed his concerns about Johnson’s plan.
“I’m very worried that if we don’t put border first and get it done, it’s going to be a nightmare for our national security,” he said, adding he anticipated passing the border security measures by mid-February.
“To the tax-cut wing of the party, I am with you,” Graham said. “But if you hold border security hostage to get tax cuts, you’re playing Russian roulette with our national security.”
Thune said it’s the Democrats who provided the template for leveraging the reconciliation process to achieve legislative wins.
“They had their first reconciliation bill done in four weeks coming on it when they got the majority,” he said, referring to the nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief package that the Democratic-controlled House and Senate passed. Another $2 trillion reconciliation bill, the Build Back Better Act, originally faced opposition but a modified version was passed by the Democratic trifecta.