House, Senate split on how to pursue Trump’s agenda

On By Littum

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WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans have been talking for months about how quickly they will move to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda once he takes office. That time has finally come.

But there appears to be disagreement over how to get it done after House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, hoping to map out a plan to move a massive package through the GOP-controlled Congress.

Johnson said he came out of the meeting with “a great spirit of unity.”

“We have a strategy that we’re all working on together,” he said. “The leaders of both chambers work in a bicameral fashion, and the president is on board.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said the plan is to pursue a bill that would include the new administration’s top priorities — cracking down on people in the U.S. without authorization, increasing domestic energy production and implementing an expansive new tax plan.

But Thune seemed to disagree with what the leaders decided. He told reporters after the meeting, “There are a lot of good theories,” and warned that plans are “always different when you have to put it into practice.” GOP Senate Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said, “The unity of the party is consensus on the reconciliation strategy.”

The disagreement leaves the future unclear for Trump’s campaign promises, even as he moves to reshape the federal government without the help of Congress.

At the center of the strategy debate are the incredibly small margins in Parliament. The lower chamber is controlled by Republicans by just three votes, 218-215, leaving almost no room for error. If more than one Republican resigns and Democrats remain united, the GOP will not be able to implement its priorities.

It’s a reality that Trump acknowledged during his speech at Capital One Arena on the night of his inauguration.

That’s why Senate Republicans have held out hope that Trump would side with them and turn to the two-bill strategy so they could score a quick win on border and energy policy while taking time to deal with the more controversial and complicated tax proposals.

Both chambers “have great leaders,” Trump told the crowd. “John Thune is great, and if you look at Mike Johnson, he has a pretty tight majority, but actually it’s very tight, but it’s very good because we vote together. We really vote together.”

It remains to be seen: House Republicans splintered repeatedly during the last Congress as a small group of ultra-conservative members derailed votes led by their leadership. But Republicans are holding out hope that an interest in delivering on Trump’s agenda will bring them together.

“We’re moving forward with one bill on the floor,” Scalise said hours after the meeting in response to Thune’s comments. “The one area we don’t disagree on is what will be in an overall package. We’re all talking about the same things: Lowering energy costs, securing America’s border, preventing tax increases, getting regulatory reform.”

More deadlines ahead

There were plenty of other issues for lawmakers to discuss with Trump at the gathering, including the fast-approaching March 14 deadline to fund the federal government.

Leaders haven’t even decided how much they want to spend, let alone started work on the 12 bills that must pass the House and Senate to avoid a shutdown.

“Before we get to (Trump’s agenda), we have to deal with March 14,” said Sen. John Hoeven, RN.D., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We want a top line.”

And if that wasn’t enough pressure, the US is expected to hit the debt ceiling on Tuesday, forcing the Treasury Department to resort to “extraordinary measures” to keep the government solvent.

The debt limit is a ceiling on how much the US government can borrow. Raising it allows politicians to pay for what they have already bought. Lawmakers would have to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a default with dire economic consequences, but it’s a politically difficult vote because many conservatives are reluctant to vote for more debt.

Instead, Republicans are considering raising the debt ceiling in connection with disaster relief for Southern California, which has suffered devastating wildfires for the past two weeks. That way, they argue, Democrats will have an incentive to help, which will offset the handful of Republican votes that are sure to be lost.

Trump, who plans to visit areas ravaged by wildfires in California on Friday, indicated to reporters after the meeting that he supported that plan: “It’s been made easier in some ways by Los Angeles because they’re going to get need a lot of money and generally As we talk, I think you’ll find that a lot of Democrats will ask for help,” he said.

Other Republicans argued that it’s not just a good idea, it’s a necessity.

“There’s no money there to put into a (wildfire relief) package unless you borrow the money,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, RS.D. Plus, linking the two issues “would likely be more appealing to a broader swath of Congress as a whole.”