WASHINGTON — President Mike Johnson is setting a highly ambitious timetable for approving President-elect Donald Trump’s costly legislative agenda, promising it will pass the House of Representatives within the next three months.
“We’re targeting April for final passage,” Johnson, R-La., told NBC News on Tuesday.
He reiterated that the House plans to adopt Trump’s policy wishes on border security, domestic energy and taxes in “one big, beautiful bill.” Johnson also called for spending cuts and an increase in the debt ceiling to be included in the bill.
It would be a herculean task with Johnson’s razor-thin majority in the House — and no hope of winning Democratic votes. The Republicans have a margin of 219-215, which is about to narrow temporarily to 217-215 with the departure of two members for the Trump administration. Johnson said earlier he wanted to pass a budget resolution to begin the “reconciliation” process by the end of February.
Republican senators are skeptical about quickly passing a bill that covers Trump’s entire agenda.
“I think we’ve seen that the House is operating on a knife’s edge,” Sen. John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said in an interview. “The more we debate a bill or two bills, the more we don’t pass a budget and we don’t deal with reconciliation instructions. So I think we need to break the glass and recognize that the House may not be able to pass what the Senate can pass. … We all need to be on the same page. The limiting factor, in my opinion, is what the House can pass.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is not giving up on his push to split the process into two bills in order to achieve a quick victory on border funding, which enjoys greater GOP consensus.
“I am hopeful that we can come up with a reconciliation package on legislation that deals with the border. And how that will happen is still up for discussion and negotiation,” Thune told reporters Tuesday.
The clash over one bill versus two persists a week after Trump met privately with Senate Republicans to discuss strategy for his package. Senators said it was a lively debate in which Trump expressed his preference for a bill but was agnostic about the process, encouraging both sides to pursue it. oppose.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said the meeting did not resolve the conflict.
“Does it seem like that to you?” he said laughing. “That’s not the case.”
Republican Party eyes $80-100 billion for border
Cramer proposed a way out: let Johnson and the House try to pass a single bill, while the Senate starts with a smaller, border-focused measure in anticipation of having to go two ways.
“Let’s let Speaker Johnson and his team – who know the House better than we do, and the House can be a problem, as you’ve noted – let them do what they think they should do,” he said. declared. “In the meantime, we pay our bill. We are making a smaller version. And you have both on the table at the same time.
He said the Senate could give the House until April: “If you move too far into April,” the senator added, “people will get a little nervous.”
“Taxation is more complicated. It’s going to take longer,” Cramer said, adding that border funding is “more time sensitive than the tax side, which is part of why I think the two-track logic makes sense to me.” .
Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, said the new Trump administration was ready to crack down on immigration, but added it would benefit from more resources early on.
“And that’s why I think we should introduce two bills,” Cruz said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, told NBC News on Tuesday that his committee, which will oversee the immigration section of the bill, was in contact with Trump’s advisers.
“For anything you need about the eviction, the wall and more staff, the best place to get that answer is from Stephen Miller,” he said. “But we have heard of a range between $80 billion and $100 billion.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Republicans must pass tough spending cuts in legislation to lower the price and must be willing to take political risks to get there.
“We have to make tough decisions, and now we have a historic opportunity to do so,” he said. “And that’s going to take courage, and it’s going to take putting your re-elections at risk.”
Debt ceiling and SALT deductions
Tillis also questioned House Republicans’ willingness to raise the debt ceiling on a party line basis.
“I don’t know how this happens. If so, that would be extraordinary,” he said. “But with the votes in the House, I don’t see how that happens.”
Tillis suggested easing pressure on Republicans by removing expiring child tax credit provisions and negotiating them as part of a separate bipartisan deal with Democrats, alongside health care funding and a expansion of federal deductions for state and local taxes (SALT), which primarily affect high taxes. -tax states like New York and New Jersey.
“You got the child tax credit. You have the subsidy for people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act exchange. There are a lot of Democratic priorities there that could actually ease the pressure on what we need to do on reconciliation by negotiating something in good faith,” he said. “SALT or not. I like salt on my pecans. I don’t like a lot of SALT deductions here.
But for now, Republicans plan to expand the SALT deduction in their party-line bill to appease concerned state House members who could make or break the bill.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., a swing district lawmaker who favors a higher SALT deduction, said that simply removing the marriage penalty and imposing a $20,000 cap on couples – as some have proposed – are not enough.
“It’s woefully inadequate,” Lawler said.
Lawler, Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., and three other Republicans are joining together to negotiate a SALT deal with party leaders, knowing their votes will be decisive in passing the overall tax cut extension .
Jon Traub, a managing director at Deloitte Tax LLP and a former Republican staff director on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said Johnson’s goal for April was aggressive.
That’s partly due to the maze of obstacles the Senate budget process will present to allow Republicans to escape the 60-vote threshold, requiring the bill to be limited to taxing and spending issues.
“I think it’s very ambitious timing,” Traub said. “It’s not impossible, because I think the moving parts are mostly identified and known. But it will be difficult to bring them together within their self-imposed income constraints – and to reach agreement on income targets in the first place.
