President-elect Donald Trump will meet with Senate Republicans on Wednesday to try to get lawmakers “on the same page” on how to move forward with some of his key policy initiatives after taking office on Jan. 20.
Trump will meet with the Senate leadership and members after paying tribute to former President Jimmy Carter at the Capitol ahead of his funeral on Thursday.
The president-elect wants to keep his campaign promises, but how to proceed has divided congressional Republicans.
Trump has introduced a major bill that will include some of Trump’s top priorities: Immigration reform and energy production, and extending the tax cuts and other spending cuts approved in his first term. He also suggested that the bill should raise the debt ceiling or eliminate it entirely.
Senate Minority Leader John Thune speaks with Sen. John Barrasso during a news conference following the Senate Republican Policy Luncheon on December 10, 2024 at the Capitol.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
With small majorities in each chamber and little support expected from Democrats, Republicans plan to push for “reconciliation” — a quick process limited to spending and revenue legislation that needs a single majority over the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. necessary to approve the legislation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson faces resistance to the fiscal conservatives’ one-bill approach in his conference. And some Republicans in the Senate are supporting two bills: one to deal with border issues and the second to deal with tax policy.
One of the main goals of Wednesday’s meeting will be “how we get across the House,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said Tuesday.
Barrasso said the “goal is the same” whether it’s done with one bill or two, but a two-part plan would allow Trump to fulfill some of his promises and give him more time to deal with unexpired tax policy. until the end of the year
“There was a suggestion by (Senate Majority Leader) John Thune — this was before Christmas — that he said, ‘Let’s get an early victory at the border,'” said Barrasso, R-Wyo. “It was an election issue and it’s a big issue for the American people and it’s a big issue for national security, and we thought we could do it in a faster way by focusing on that, take the handcuffs off America’s energy and military power, and then have more time to work on the financial component of this.
“These issues and the urgency of the tax problem don’t really kick in until the end of the year to the level that these other issues are more pressing,” he said.
Trump reiterated that he wanted one bill when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday, but said he could live with two.
“Well, I like a big, beautiful bill, and always have, always will,” he said. But if two is more certain (to pass), it will go a little faster because you can do the immigration stuff early. ” he said.
At home, Johnson said he remains convinced a single-bill strategy is “the best way to go,” but talks with Thune are continuing.
“Yes, Leader Thune and I are on the same page in terms of goals, and right now we are determining the final sequence of the play, so to speak,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “This is not some kind of, I feel like sometimes the media tries to make this an existential threat to the goals or what we’re doing with the legislation. It’s not, the two chambers decide the best sequence of events,” he said. and I think we will reach a perfect alignment here in the next few days.”
Johnson said he hopes to have a bill ready by the first week of April, but it remains to be seen whether he can win over fiscal conservatives in his conference, who have long opposed all bills like the one Johnson is proposing. table
The speaker pushed back on Tuesday that the single-bill approach is a kitchen-sink approach.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise about the Republican agenda this week ahead of meetings with President-elect Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 7, 2025.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
“This is not a blanket spending bill, it’s an appropriations bill,” Johnson said. “This is to reduce spending, it’s a goal we’ve talked about. I’ll keep repeating this: because the debt ceiling has been raised, to stabilize the bond markets and to send a message to the world that we’re going to pay off the nation’s debt. We’re trying to cut spending to reduce the size of government and limit spending. , to be able to see those two things happen at the same time.”
Johnson also wants to manage the debt limit in the reconciliation bill – without support from Democrats.
“That way, the Republican Party, as the party in charge of both chambers, we’ll get to work out the details of that again. If it goes through the regular order, the regular process … then you have to have both parties negotiate. And we feel like we’re in a better place to do it ourselves.” , he said on Tuesday.
But it remains to be seen whether Johnson can sell fiscal conservatives on the idea in his speech. A short-term government funding bill to avoid a shutdown was nearly scrapped last month after Trump called for tackling the debt ceiling.
After his meeting with senators, Trump will meet with House Republican caucuses at the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida this weekend.
“It’s bringing a large group of House Republicans to Mar-a-Lago for three days in a row this weekend to meet and talk with all of our members about what’s ahead of us and the challenges and how we can get this all done together,” Johnson said, although the speaker is not expected.
