Newly reelected Speaker Mike Johnson informed Home Republicans throughout a closed-door coverage retreat on Saturday that President-elect Donald Trump desires Congress to cross one sweeping invoice stuffed with his priorities by means of the price range reconciliation course of, a number of sources informed ABC Information.
Johnson mentioned Trump desires to cross “one huge, lovely invoice,” in line with sources.
Rep. Mike Johnson reacts after being re-elected as Speaker of the Home on the primary day of the 119th Congress on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 3, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Home Republicans are assembly privately at Fort McNair to map their legislative technique underneath Trump’s presidency for taxes, the border and vitality, amongst different coverage areas.
Trump’s want to have one invoice as a substitute of two is a break from what Senate Majority Chief John Thune has laid out as his plan, which incorporates two separate packages, a number of retailers have reported.
With a trifecta within the Home, the Senate and the White Home, Republicans can have the flexibility to try to implement main coverage adjustments with none Democratic help utilizing a procedural instrument referred to as price range reconciliation, which solely requires a easy majority of votes to cross the chamber. However the razor-thin GOP majority within the Home means a reconciliation bundle will even be a significant problem to cross.
The Home Freedom Caucus has endorsed a two-step plan relatively than Trump’s single invoice, and the group of hard-liners could stand in the way in which of Trump’s needs. On Friday, a number of members of the Home Freedom Caucus practically stopped Johnson from getting chosen as speaker on the primary spherical, although most of them in the end voted for Johnson to permit him to acquire the 218 votes wanted to be elected. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was the one Home Republican who did not vote for Johnson.
Rep. Andy Harris, chairman of the Home Freedom Caucus, joins a bunch of conservative Republicans to talk about the interim spending invoice being crafted to keep away from a shutdown of federal companies, on the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2024.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Laws handed by way of price range reconciliation, which might enable the Senate to avert the 60-vote threshold from the filibuster, would wish consensus amongst Home Republicans with their majority of 219 Republicans to 215 Democrats. In the event that they want to cross laws with none Democratic help, they will solely have one GOP defection if all members of the Home are current. The only invoice Trump favors by means of reconciliation would put the GOP caucus to the check.
“There are a bunch of us who help breaking it up into two items,” Home Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris mentioned on Saturday throughout a Fox Information interview. “The primary piece, a really small border piece the place we give the president the cash that he must safe our southern border and begin deporting unlawful, legal aliens.”
