U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and wife Melania Trump arrive at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 8 in Washington, D.C. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., walks in back of them (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images).
WASHINGTON — Republican congressional leaders huddled with President Donald Trump on Tuesday in search of a clear path forward to make sweeping changes to the country’s border security, energy policy and tax code, though they remained stuck on a question they’ve been mulling for weeks.
Republicans secured unified control of government by promising voters they’d pass new laws addressing major policy areas, but aren’t yet aligned over whether to bundle all the various changes together in an omnibus measure, or to pass them in two separate packages.
GOP leaders also still need to determine where far-right members and centrists overlap in dozens of areas, since votes from nearly every Republican in Congress will be necessary to get any bill to Trump’s desk.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after arriving back at the Capitol that negotiators had yet to reach consensus on how to package their policy proposal. It was Trump’s second day in office and the first gathering of top Republicans at the White House with him.
“Well, I think that discussion is always predicated on what we can get done and we’re obviously all interested in getting to the same destination,” Thune said.
The South Dakota Republican said in addition to working out agreement amongst themselves on reconciliation, GOP leaders need to figure out how to fund the government ahead of a March 14 deadline and how to address the country’s debt limit prior to a default date that’s expected to take place later this year.
Both of those issues will require Republicans to reach agreement with Democrats to avoid a partial government shutdown starting less than 100 days into Trump’s presidency, or a first-ever default on the country’s debt, which would likely trigger a global financial crisis.
“So there’s a lot to do and part of it is just figuring out how to stage it and what’s the best way to get all those results,” Thune said, adding with a bit of a laugh that there are a lot of “great theories” about how to get it all done this year.
“But, you know, it’s always different when you have to translate that into practice,” he said, previewing the complicated and rocky path that accompanies writing campaign promises into law.
Trump said during a press conference at the White House after the meeting that he believed the House, Senate and White House had “pretty much” figured out a strategy.
“I think we have a good situation now,” Trump said.
Tricky process
Republicans are planning to use the complex budget reconciliation process to pass their border security, energy and tax proposals without needing Democratic support to move past the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.
The process requires every part of the package to impact federal revenue or spending in a way that is not deemed “merely incidental” by the Senate parliamentarian.
That could cause some challenges for the committees tasked with drafting various sections of the package in the months ahead, especially on immigration policy, which might not have the price tags that typically go along with the reconciliation process.
Democrats, for example, tried to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour in a coronavirus relief bill they moved through the reconciliation process in 2021. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled its impact on the federal budget was “merely incidental,” leading Democrats to remove that provision from the larger bill.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, ranking member on the Budget Committee at the time, released a written statement in February 2021 praising the parliamentarian’s ruling on the minimum wage language.
“Very pleased the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that a minimum wage increase is an inappropriate policy change in reconciliation,” Graham wrote at the time. “This decision reinforces reconciliation cannot be used as a vehicle to pass major legislative change — by either party — on a simple majority vote. This decision will, over time, reinforce the traditions of the Senate.”
Budget resolution
Republicans need to be on the same page about one rather than two reconciliation bills and generally about how to change U.S. law before they can officially begin the reconciliation process.
The House and Senate must vote to approve a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions before they can unlock the reconciliation process. That will require leaders to at least have some outline of what they plan to do, how much they expect it will cost and which committees hold jurisdiction over those policy areas.
House Republican leaders hope to vote on that budget resolution in February, draft the legislation in March, hold a floor vote in that chamber in early April and work out any disagreements with the Senate before late May, at which point they hope to send the entire package to Trump.
Ashley Murray and Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.