President-elect Donald Trump appears ready to let Senate and House Republicans settle their differences over budget reconciliation strategy without putting his thumb on the scales for either the all-in-one measure brewing in the House or the Senate’s bifurcated approach.
Trump met with Senate Republicans on Wednesday night after paying his respects to the late President Jimmy Carter, who was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda after his death at the age of 100 late last month. He told reporters after the GOP gathering that both plans have their merits, although he’s repeatedly voiced a preference for the House plan.
“It was a really good meeting, very strong, and we’ll get something done. One bill, two bills, it doesn’t matter,” Trump said. “They’re going to work that out and the end result is going to be the same.”
The debate for weeks has been simple: Pass “one powerful bill,” as Trump puts it, combining tax cuts, border security and defense spending, domestic energy incentives, raising the debt ceiling and more? Or separate out the border, defense and energy provisions and possibly a few other things that could pass much more quickly, shortly after Trump takes office?
But it’s been remarkably difficult for House and Senate Republicans to get on the same page.
During the meeting, the president-elect laid out his reasoning behind the one-bill idea that he’s previously gotten behind, though he’s said he’s open to either approach. He asked for feedback on why the Senate proposal was better, which he received.
“There’s a lot of discussion that’s going to go on…what can the House pass? What does the speaker think?” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said after the meeting, referring to Speaker Mike Johnson. “So he heard from us that and from our leader that a two-bill strategy is very much alive over here.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is the original architect of the two-bill strategy and hasn’t come off that position, despite lobbying from Johnson.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who backs the piecemeal approach, said Trump “wasn’t convinced” that the Senate had the better plan, though he had an “open mind” about it.
“He talked about a number of things, including, well, but think about if somebody doesn’t like all the tax provisions, so they say they’re going to vote no, but then they’re also voting against border security. Isn’t it hard to do that?’ So that would be a point or an argument for having it all together,” Hoeven said.
Hoeven said he pitched Trump on having the Senate pursue a two-bill strategy at the same time the House pursues “one big, beautiful bill.”
“The point I’ve put out is, well, Mr. President, you love a horse race. Why not? There’s no downside really, to … having us advance the smaller bill first, if you will, the border bill first,” he said. “And then if that seems to be moving, maybe the House would want to embrace it and and that might get the process further faster, and if not, they’re still working on their one big bill. And you know, we haven’t lost any ground because we’re working on it simultaneously.”
Logistically that could be difficult, however, as both chambers need to adopt the same resolution laying out the budget reconciliation framework before either can get started on the implementing legislation.
‘Weeks, not months’
Earlier on Wednesday, Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham doubled down on his push for splitting up forthcoming budget reconciliation priorities into two bills.
The South Carolina Republican said he’s ready to kick off the process this month, without waiting until February as his House GOP counterparts backing “one big, beautiful bill” in the spring are considering.
In a short statement after his formal recognition as chairman by the Senate, he laid out a list of priorities to include, such as “the most transformational border security bill in American history” and increased military spending.
“We’re going to give President Trump and his team the resources they need to finish the wall, put technology on the border to obtain operational control, hire more ICE agents to deport gang members and criminals, and create more detention space so we don’t have to release illegal immigrants into the country,” Graham said. “We will make the Navy bigger and more lethal.”
And in a clear shot across the Capitol at his House colleagues advocating one big April package, Graham added: “We are going to do all of this in weeks, not months.”
The first step is adopting a budget resolution that both chambers have to agree on, containing reconciliation instructions to various authorizing committees. That would be followed in quick succession under Senate GOP plans with the implementing reconciliation bill. Neither the resolution nor the bill can be filibustered, but an unlimited Senate amendment process known as a “vote-a-rama” is allowed.
In an appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Graham said he envisioned getting a bill to Trump’s desk by Feb. 17. And while sympathetic to the need to extend Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts this year, he admonished the “tax-cut wing of the party” to fall in line with the two-step process.
“If you hold border security hostage to get tax cuts, you’re playing Russian roulette with our national security,” Graham said.
Graham is a close ally and golfing partner of Trump’s, though he perhaps hasn’t spent as much time lately with Trump as Johnson has. Johnson’s been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago and spent time Friday with the president-elect on the phone as he was trying to wrangle the last votes that he needed to be elected speaker.
Trump then came out with a public endorsement of the all-in-one reconciliation bill strategy, appearing to significantly bolster Johnson’s case.
But by the next morning Trump had softened his position, saying he respected the views of Graham and Thune, who want to deliver an early win to his desk by mid-February. By that point, under the tentative House timetable they would have barely gotten started with their own budget resolution laying out the framework for reconciliation.
Thune also spoke with Johnson on Tuesday. Johnson told reporters Wednesday that he thinks the one-versus-two bills question should be resolved in a matter of days, though he reiterated his preference for the all-in-one approach.
“Leader Thune and I are on exactly the same page with regard to the objectives. We’re determining right now the final sequence of the play call, so to speak,” Johnson said. “This is two chambers deciding the best sequence of events and we’ll get to the perfect alignment here in the next, I think, couple of days.”
New faces
Graham’s panel roster also got filled out this week, with GOP Sens. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, John Cornyn of Texas and freshman Bernie Moreno of Ohio getting seats. The Republican side grew by one in the 119th Congress, with the three new members replacing former Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Mike Braun of Indiana.
Graham switches places with Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, a panel member who opted to chair the Judiciary Committee in the 119th Congress instead.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon ascended to the ranking member slot, taking over from Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse, who stayed on the committee but chose to become Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member.
The 11-10 split on the Budget panel doesn’t bode well for getting a budget blueprint to the floor through the traditional markup process, as the GOP would need complete unity in the face of Democratic opposition. Conservative firebrands like Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin kept their seats on the Budget Committee, for instance.
Graham can skip a markup by bringing a fiscal 2025 budget blueprint straight to the floor, however, under a provision of the 1974 budget law that says any senator can trigger a budget vote after April 1 of that fiscal year.
Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.
Thomas Byron
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