Donald Trump wants Republicans to pass one massive legislative package with all of his top priorities, House Speaker Mike Johnson told his conference Saturday.
Trump’s call for one bill passed through a process called budget reconciliation deviates from the plan Senate Majority Leader John Thune laid out late last year, teeing up what will very likely be a year of high-pressure negotiations.
Thune presented a two-bill strategy, where the first would deliver Trump a win on his campaign promises around border security, energy regulations and defense, and the second would deal with taxes and raising revenue.
The House Freedom Caucus called for a similar strategy. In a December letter to Johnson, the most conservative faction of the Republican party said the House should first quickly pass a border security reconciliation bill, before addressing spending, taxes and energy policy.
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But Trump doesn’t want to go that route, Johnson told the House GOP, according to three sources familiar with the meeting. The president-elect just wants one bill.
House Republicans met at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., this weekend to map out a game plan for the coming year. The Senate majority leader made an appearance at the House policy retreat, according to one source familiar. Thune’s office declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s call for a combined bill is a big win for Johnson and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, who has pushed for pursuing one reconciliation package.
House Republicans across the party’s ideological spectrum have expressed concerns that they would be unable to pass two bills in one year with such a slim margin.
Johnson already got a taste of the budget negotiations that await Republicans in the weeks and months ahead in mid-December, when conservatives brought the government to the brink of a shutdown.
Then, Republican leadership floated a plan to raise the debt limit and cut “mandatory” spending, which covers programs like Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare and welfare programs, by $2.5 trillion.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.
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