WASHINGTON — With his political standing at an all-time high, President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in Monday amid a growing feud among congressional Republicans over how to implement his policy agenda.
Republican leaders on Capitol Hill say they will advance Trump’s ambitious plans on immigration, domestic energy and the tax code along partisan lines. That means pushing them through the party’s razor-thin majority in the House and complying with the Senate’s murky budget process, in which eliminating Democrats and circumventing filibusters will require limiting policies to spending and taxes.
“Very soon we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history,” Trump said Sunday at a victory rally in Washington, where he alluded to the Republican Party’s narrow majority in the House. “And we will end Biden’s war on energy.”
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Although Trump has promised to begin issuing a series of executive orders on day one, these will be limited by law and the courts. Realizing many of his promises will depend on Congressional action.
But Republicans still disagree on how to handle the range of issues they will face, including how quickly to adopt border financing and complex tax policy issues, cutting clean energy subsidies , raising the debt ceiling and limiting new red ink.
“It’s a huge challenge,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said in an interview.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is determined to advance the entire agenda in one massive bill, telling NBC News last week that he plans to do so passed by the House by April. But the far-right House Freedom Caucus disagrees and prefers to split the bill into two bills.
Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, plan to pursue a two-track strategy: a smaller bill to increase funding for border security and another later in the year for the most complex goals, like extending the expiring Trump tax cuts. .
Republican senators say the House could surprise them and succeed by passing just one bill. But they doubt it, and if they don’t get it done by April, they will pressure House Republicans to break up the package and quickly send Trump the low-hanging fruit.
The debate over process is only the beginning.
Republicans must gain near-unanimous support within their ranks to pass a bill, with their 220-215 majority in the House expected to shrink, at least temporarily, with three vacancies expected in the first 100 days of Trump.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, whose committee will write the section on border security and immigration enforcement, said he expects it to cost between 80 and 100 billion dollars.
Sen. Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said Democrats would be prepared to take a parliamentary challenge to the GOP’s immigration measures and eliminate policies that do not comply with the so-called rule. Byrd.
“We expect a lot of battles over immigration,” Durbin said.
Republicans also want new provisions to increase domestic energy production, including fossil fuels, while repealing unspent funds for clean energy that Democrats passed in the Inflation Reduction Act, a said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., chairwoman of Environment and Public Works. Committee.
She said they have already begun exploring policy options and added that she prefers a two-bill approach that includes her energy policy plans in the first measure.
“This is not a new exercise for us. We’re looking at IRA subsidies, the methane tax and other things,” Capito said in an interview. “Because energy is a very important element.”
She did not have an estimate of the cost or savings Republicans would make on energy, describing the numbers as “across the board.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said it would take “100 percent” participation from Trump to resolve some of the differences within the party.
The House is “just a little bit worried about being able to accomplish both in the same year,” he said, referring to the single-bill strategy. “And of course we’re a little nervous about the border. We must do something.
Tuberville also noted that Republicans will have to figure out how to handle a possible expansion of federal deductions for state and local taxes (or SALT) — an issue that has divided Republican lawmakers in high-tax states like New York and New Jersey from the most. of the party in red-leaning areas – as well as the debt ceiling.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., told NBC News last week that his panel is ready to pass a sprawling tax bill aimed at extending the state’s tax cuts. Trump, among other measures, in “a week”.
“We are ready. Give us the budget reconciliation instructions,” Smith said, adding that the budget committees need to agree on a path forward. “It has to pass the House, the Senate, and then those are the instructions we have to follow.” Because what they tell us depends on what we can do. So I can’t do anything until they pass their budget resolution.”
