washington – A new Congress is starts friday as Republicans take control of the House and Senate ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House later this month. And with new control of both chambers, Republican leaders are touting a list of priorities they intend to tackle quickly, particularly immigration and taxes.
Exactly how Republicans will act remains to be seen. Earlier this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson laid out plans to move the GOP agenda through the budget reconciliation process, which allows them to fast-track certain types of legislation and avoid the 60-vote threshold which is normally required in the Senate. But reconciliation is a tricky maneuver that comes with its own limitations on what can be included.
Johnson, who faces his own speaker election on Friday, said a reconciliation package will be “the key to the first 100 days” but noted it will require “a lot of coordination, planning and executing these plans precisely “.
“We’re going to fix the border,” Johnson said Monday on Fox News. “We’re going to get the economy humming again. We’re going to restore our stature on the world stage, we’re going to fix our energy policy, we’re going to make sure we don’t have the biggest tax cut in US history foisted on the northern people -American at the end of next year when the Trump-era tax cuts expire.”
The first days of the new Congress will be marked by the election of the speaker, which is necessary before the Chamber moves on to other matters, and the counting of the votes of the Electoral College on Monday 6 January.
Republicans in Congress have touted their alignment on the issues, saying they have a mandate from the American people to deliver on Trump’s “America First” agenda. Still, a unified vision of how to move forward with priorities has appeared murky as the new Congress begins. And whether Republicans ultimately pursue a reconciliation bill or two remains a moot point.
“We have a lot on our plate,” Johnson said. “But I’m sure we’ll be able to do it.”
Here’s where Republicans plan to start:
immigration
Republicans have for months presented a plan, following Trump’s example, to carry out a radical change in immigration policy. The pledge became a key part of the president-elect’s campaign, as he vowed to target unauthorized and legal immigrants with unprecedented measures, including mass deportations.
Many of the immigration proposals are expected to be implemented through executive orders. But Republican leaders in Congress have outlined plans to pursue parallel legislation that would increase resources on the southern border and continue construction of Trump’s border wall, while working to strengthen the Border Patrol and technology at the border.
On the timing of the legislation, Sen. John Thune, the new Senate majority leader, stressed that “it makes sense that we move quickly” on immigration in an initial reconciliation package, combined with defense and energy provisions. That plan would leave economic measures such as addressing Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for a later date.
“I think we can do both,” Thune said last month. “We have an opportunity to have a couple of different opportunities in a reconciliation package that accomplishes all of those goals.”
To pass legislation through the reconciliation maneuver, lawmakers must first pass a budget resolution and direct committees to craft bills that reconcile the spending with the new budget goals. The final product may only include tax, expense or debt limit provisions, and any new expenses must be paid. The Senate parliamentarian must also sign the package, confirming that the provisions have direct budgetary consequences, if an item is contested.
Stephen Miller, the new White House deputy chief of staff, he said on Fox News in December that the plan is to put both a border security and tax package on a “fast track,” with a border package expected to reach Trump’s desk in January or early February. Miller said it would mark the “largest investment in immigration and border security” in history.
Leaders of the House Freedom Caucus have also weighed in, pushing in December for a standalone border package. The group of conservatives of the Chamber argued in a letter to Johnson that it is “imperative that we first deliver, in January, a rapid and focused border reconciliation package that is fully offset.”
“President Trump’s agenda will be enacted and border security must move first,” the group wrote, adding that a broader reconciliation package focused on “taxes, spending, energy, red tape and more” would to be in second place.
taxes
At the end of the year, key parts of the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 are set to expire. Republicans want to extend them, or even make them permanent.
Republicans are too aiming build on tax cuts by strengthening existing provisions, including research and development costs that companies spend on innovation, and others that encourage domestic ownership of intellectual property. They can also claim a child tax credit with work requirements, while also addressing disagreements about state and local tax deductions.
Johnson acknowledged last month that the tax piece “could be very complicated,” sparking a discussion about where it fits in the timeline.
The plan will depend on whether leadership can hold the House and Senate Republican conferences together. With 53 seats in the Senate, Republicans only have room for two defections in the budget reconciliation process. And in the House, with a likely party breakdown between 219 and 215, Republicans will also have little room for error, especially early in Trump’s term, when lawmakers will leave three seats vacant to serve in the executive branch .
Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith has advocated for a compromise package, arguing that combining tax provisions with other policies would help him maneuver through a narrow majority in the House. In either scenario, it remains to be seen whether the party can hold together to pass tax cut extensions, along with other key priorities.
Despite having a Republican trifecta when Trump took office in 2017, Republicans failed to achieve a number of goals in the early days of the administration due to infighting and disorganization. And a more recent row over the government’s funding process in December suggests the party may still struggle to hold together going forward.
Marc Short, a former legislative director under Trump, he said to CNBC in December that the disagreement over government funding “foreshadows how difficult it will be to pass any kind of tax relief extension.” And he argued that Trump made an unforced error when he brought the debt ceiling up in the conversation, an issue that will be at stake in the new Congress.
Debt ceiling and public financing
Trump asked House Republicans raise the debt ceilingwhich limits how much the government can borrow to pay its bills, during the government funding scramble in December. And while lawmakers passed a stopgap measure to keep the government funded until the spring, they couldn’t agree on a last-minute request to address the debt ceiling. Democratic leaders called the fight premature, and fiscal conservatives opposed raising the debt ceiling without spending reforms.
While the debt ceiling is not among Republicans’ legislative priorities, it has important implications for the GOP’s ability to advance its agenda.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to congressional leaders that the government will reach its debt limit between January 14 and 23. Once the limit is reached, the Treasury Department will implement so-called “extraordinary measures” to prevent a default. on government debt. The department will then estimate an “X date,” the point at which the government will be unable to pay its obligations.
In recent years, the debt limit has been used as a bargaining chip in broader spending talks, dancing around a default that would have catastrophic implications for the global economy. Trump wanted the issue addressed before he took office, imploring Republican lawmakers to suspend the debt ceiling or eliminate it entirely to deprive Democrats of leverage in upcoming spending fights under his watch.
Johnson told reporters as the spending fight ended last month that he planned to address the debt ceiling in January, as congressional Republicans seek to clear the way for their legislative priorities.
energy
Republicans also aim to address energy policy in their budget reconciliation plans, pledging to “free up” domestic energy production by mandating lease sales, opening federal lands to drilling, the loosening of energy permitting regulations and the reduction of energy provisions of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Whether lawmakers pursue other energy priorities, such as clean energy tax credits, remains to be seen.
The plan, touted as a way to increase the nation’s energy independence, comes amid a broader campaign by Republicans to cut costs while rolling back Democrats’ climate-focused policies.
Approval of nominees for cabinet and other senior administration roles
Trump has announced picks for dozens of cabinet and administration officials, many of whom will require Senate confirmation. While confirmation hearings can begin before Trump’s inauguration, the formal voting process cannot begin until Jan. 20, when the elections will become official nominations. The election is then expected to monopolize the Senate calendar.
Thune has repeatedly pledged that Senate Republicans will work to quickly approve Trump’s nominees after he takes office. Trump has threatened to make unilateral appointments where he can if the process stalls.
Still, a couple of Trump’s picks, like his pick for defense secretary Pete Hegseth, have been controversial even among some Republicans, raising questions about his quick confirmation.