At a closed-door Republican retreat Saturday morning, newly re-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said President-elect Donald Trump favors passing a reconciliation bill unique solution that would meet its priorities, including border security. energy and an expansion of its 2017 tax law, two sources with direct knowledge told NBC News.
Since the November elections, when Republicans regained control of the White House and Senate and retained control of the House, Republican lawmakers have publicly debated whether to attempt to pass one or two bills of reconciliation to advance their agenda.
Reconciliation allows Congress to pass party policies related to taxes and spending by simple majority, suspending the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold needed to pass legislation.
With a razor-thin Republican majority in the House and a four-seat Republican majority in the Senate, Republican lawmakers would still have little room to lose GOP votes, even when passing laws using reconciliation.
Johnson’s revelation that Trump favors a one-time reconciliation bill is important because some in the president-elect’s orbit, including those who will be involved in negotiating any package like his immigration policy adviser Stephen Miller, pushed Republicans to pass two separate reconciliation bills. : one attacks immigration and the other focuses on Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which expire later this year.
Trump’s approval of just one bill will be good news for many leaders, but could be a blow to some hard-liners who want the border issue resolved immediately.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., approved a two-bill strategy in December, and House Republicans have already begun putting the process in place for a reconciliation bill border only.
“In my opinion, it makes sense to act quickly on the things that we know we can do quickly — borders, defense, energy,” Thune told reporters last month. “And then come back with another package that would address some of the savings that can be achieved through cost reductions in various government agencies, bureaucracies and programs, and then also address the expiring Trump tax cuts in a package later this year.”
Most Republicans in Congress have raised problems by trying to introduce two budget bills in a single year through the shaky process that allows them to bypass the 60-vote threshold. It would be a lot of work to unify the party around two massive bills, they say, rather than just one, and could waste political capital unnecessarily. Lawmakers charged with crafting tax policy, who are already preparing the tax package, also fear that splitting the bills in two would raise the price of extending Trump’s tax cuts and add to the deficit – a red line for many members of the Republican Party.
Spokespeople for Trump and Thune’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sahil Kapur And Scott Wong contributed.
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