Mike Johnson has told his allies on Capitol Hill he plans to use the budget reconciliation process to pass huge chunks of Donald Trump’s policy changes.
Like Democrats under Joe Biden, they are planning to use the process that would allow them to approve bills on party-line votes, with a simple majority.
The Senate infamously passed Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act via budget reconciliation in 2022.
Early priorities will be border security and reviving the tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term.
The president-elect wants the bill to pass the House and Senate, and be on his desk by May, just outside his first 100 days in office.
Republicans reportedly held a closed-door meeting at Fort McNair in Washington on Saturday, according to Fox News.
While incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune is prepared to use the process to pass two bills, Johnson may want it all done in one shot.
Thune has detailed a potential two-part strategy that would have senators working on an initial legislative package – energy, border security and defense priorities – that could be approved in the first 30 days of the new administration.
Mike Johnson has told his allies on Capitol Hill he plans to use the budget reconciliation process to pass huge chunks of Donald Trump’s agenda
Republicans reportedly held a closed-door meeting at Fort McNair in Washington on Saturday to discuss passing Donald Trump’s agenda
Next, Thune explained that the senators would turn to tax cuts – reviving the expiring tax cuts from Trump’s first term – which is expected to take longer, dragging into the year.
Congress has not passed two reconciliation bills in one year since 1997.
Republicans aren´t ready to eliminate the filibuster, which will make it harder to win some votes in the new 53-47 Senate.
The new Congress convened Friday, when lawmakers were sworn into office, and the Senate expects to quickly begin holding confirmation hearings for Trump´s top Cabinet nominees – some of whom are already running into resistance.
Republicans have had difficulty uniting around the details of their agenda, even when they control the levers of government in Washington.
But already fissures are developing over various tax and spending cuts, and broader policies such as Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants.
The president-elect faced the first major test of his influence over Republicans in the House in a chaotic few days that narrowly avoided a government shutdown.
But it was not a test that Trump passed with flying colors.
The Senate infamously passed Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act via budget reconciliation in 2022
Although he was handed a resounding mandate by voters on November 5 – ultra-conservative Republicans rejected his Elon Musk-backed demand to lift the debt ceiling.
Thirty-eight fiscal conservatives – including Kentucky ‘s Thomas Massie and South Carolina’s Nancy Mace – defected on Thursday night despite Trump’s loud protestations on his social media platform, TruthSocial.
Then, hours before the deadline on Saturday morning, Congress passed a deal to keep the government funded through February – without lifting the debt ceiling.
Marc Short, Trump’s ex-legislative affairs director, warned that the rebellion ‘did not portend well’ for the president-elect’s bold strategy at the border. Trump’s mass deportation plan is estimated to cost north of $80 billion per year.
The president-elect previously pledged that the cost of his plans for the border are ‘not a question of a price tag.’
A report by the pro-migrant American Immigration Council estimated that deporting one million migrants per year would cost $88 billion.
Republicans by and large support Trump’s plan to secure the border but many are wedded to cutting fiscal spending and not adding to the trillions of dollars of debt the United States has built.
The interest payments on the country’s debts now exceed the entire defense budget.
Speaker Mike Johnson and his wife Kelly Johnson with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in September
Senate Minority Whip John Thune will become Senate Republican leader in January
Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, is one of the members of Trump’s party who refused the spending deal.
‘My position is simple — I am not going to raise or suspend the debt ceiling (racking up more debt) without significant & real spending cuts attached to it. I’ve been negotiating to that end. No apologies,’ he wrote.
Roy has been an outspoken critic of Johnson and compared the original deal to a ‘crap sandwich.’
‘We get this negotiated crap, and we’re forced to eat this crap sandwich,’ he said. ‘It’s the same dang thing every year. Legislate by crisis, legislate by calendar. Not legislate because it’s the right thing to do.’
When Trump takes office in January, nine of the Republicans who voted no on the bill will have been replaced.
However, 25 of the rebel Republicans who voted no won their district by 10 or more points in November, with nine of them winning by more than 30 points.
With the GOP’s margin in the House slimming down to at least a 220-215 majority – assuming all of Trump’s Cabinet picks are confirmed and Republicans replace them in special elections – he will need to unify the party to get his border plans passed.
The Republicans are likely to shift federal funds to pay for building Trump’s proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and to hire personnel to round up migrants for deportation.
Representative Chip Roy (pictured left) is considered one of the potential ‘Republican rebels’ who could torpedo any bills that require what he deems unnecessary spending
Thomas Massie voted against Johnson for speaker on Friday and voted against a Trump-endorsed budget deal
Congress is expected to work longer weeks, particularly in the Senate, which often is not in session on Fridays.
House Republicans coalesced around Mike Johnson Friday to reelect him as House speaker after a tumultuous vote.
The speedy reelection of Johnson, 52, to the speakership means that Republicans avoided the embarrassing pitfall of taking days to elect a leader – as was the case two years ago when they burned through 15 ballots over five days before finally settling on former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Republicans ultimately sided with Johnson despite some GOP discontents dramatically voting against the speaker at the outset.
With an ultra-slim majority, just two GOP ‘No’ votes would be enough to stop Johnson from victory, which is what happened for a moment.
Three Republicans preliminarily bucked Johnson. The vote was 216 for Johnson, 215 for Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, and three votes for other candidates.
But the vote was never gaveled out, so lawmakers still had the opportunity to change their ballots.
Those three Republicans who voted for other candidates were Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas. But after Johnson huddled with Self and Norman, the two lawmakers changed their votes and backed the incumbent.
The final total was 218 for Johnson and 215 for Jeffries, giving Johnson a reelection victory on the first ballot.
Celebrating the victory, Trump posted on Truth Social: ‘Congratulations to Speaker Mike Johnson for receiving an unprecedented vote of confidence in Congress.’
