Senate and Home Republicans are setting the desk for what they hope — and more and more anticipate — will likely be unified GOP management of the White Home and Congress after the election.
Republican leaders in each chambers are mapping out an agenda for Donald Trump’s first 100 days and so they anticipate to maneuver rapidly on a large finances reconciliation bundle that may fulfill Trump’s promise of reducing taxes by trillions of {dollars}.
Workers for Senate Republican Chief Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Senate GOP Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise (R-La.) met just lately to map out their agenda for 2025 if the Election Day is an enormous success for his or her social gathering, based on sources conversant in discussions.
As well as, Johnson, who has mentioned he intends to run for re-election as Speaker if Republicans maintain the Home, has saved in common contact with Trump within the run-up to the election and Scalise, one other Trump ally, says he has spoken to the GOP nominee about his prime priorities for 2025.
GOP policymakers are funding a serious new border safety initiative that would come with completion of Trump’s signature border wall and probably defunding components of the federal government that Trump allies argue have turn into “weaponized” below the Biden administration.
However the prime precedence of Republican leaders in each chambers will likely be to increase the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — Trump’s signature legislative achievement — earlier than it expires on the finish of 2025.
How far they transcend that will likely be a topic of intense debate amongst Republican lawmakers within the months forward, assuming that Trump defeats Vice President Harris and Republicans win again management of the Senate and maintain their Home majority.
“The plotting, the strategizing and trying to get prepared for [budget] reconciliation has been going for several months,” mentioned a Senate GOP aide. “Over the August recess and over this October recess, these efforts have been ramping up lots.
“McConnell’s folks and Thune’s folks have been leading the effort on our side,” the aide added.
“A lot of the House committees have been putting work in on this, some are further along than others,” the supply added. “Efforts are underway. Hitting the ground running is something everyone wants to be able to do.”
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who’s poised to turn into the brand new Senate Republican whip within the subsequent Congress, instructed The Hill he has been assembly with the heads of Trump’s transition group, Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, to assist put collectively a roadmap for Trump’s first 100 days.
“The transition team is more prepared, they are better staffed [than Trump’s team was after the 2016 election] and they are laser focused on getting out of the gates quickly,” he added.
Republican sources say McConnell, Thune and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who’s poised to turn into chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in a Republican majority, are spearheading the early discussions on the primary main invoice Republicans hope to maneuver in 2025.
Thune, who’s operating to succeed McConnell as GOP chief, was a key architect of 2017 tax reform invoice. He’s a member of the Finance Committee as effectively.
He has led the Republican push to repeal the property tax, to ease the tax burden on medical doctors, nurses and different professionals who cross state traces for work, and this summer season launched bipartisan laws to permit employers to contribute as much as $5,250 tax-free to their worker’s scholar loans.
Cornyn, who’s operating towards Thune to turn into the subsequent GOP chief and is one other member of the Finance panel, has additionally been concerned within the discussions.
Johnson instructed Senate Republicans in June that he needed to go as formidable a bundle as potential throughout Trump’s first 12 months in workplace if he wins a second time period.
The Speaker pitched GOP senators over the summer season on together with tax cuts, spending cuts and regulatory reforms into laws that Republicans would transfer below the Senate’s finances reconciliation course of, which might allow them to avoid a Democratic filibuster.
Controversial laws in any other case requires 60 votes to advance by way of the higher chamber. However Republicans might make use of particular budgetary guidelines to fast-track laws in the event that they management the White Home and each chambers of Congress.
“He’s pretty clear that they want to try to go big and that means more than just extending the tax cuts,” Cornyn mentioned after assembly with Johnson this summer season.
One GOP aide argued the reconciliation bundle wants to deal with the border difficulty given how a lot Trump’s has emphasised it throughout the marketing campaign.
“Dealing with the problem at the border is something the president has said will be one of his primary priorities and objectives if he’s elected,” the aide mentioned. “It would be a mistake to come in and do a reconciliation bill that’s just an extension of [the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act] and not deal with these other major issues, which are what President Trump has been talking in his bid to be elected.”
Scalise, the No. 2-ranking Home GOP chief, instructed a reporter Monday that Trump has already communicated his prime priorities for 2025 to the Republican management.
“I’ve already talked to President Trump about the top priorities he would want,” Scalise instructed NOTUS throughout a visit to the border in McAllen, Texas.
“The main things we’ve been talking about is getting the economy back on track and securing the border,” he mentioned. “Of course, those are the top issues right now. I’m sure we’ll get into, you know, helping lower the cost of health care, addressing transparency in health care, which doesn’t exist right now.”
On the opposite aspect of the Capitol, McConnell and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, together with Thune, have fashioned coverage teams to evaluation the expiring Trump-era regulation that overhauled the tax code almost a decade in the past.
Crapo instructed Bloomberg earlier this 12 months that the teams would talk about each side of the expiring tax breaks to organize for subsequent 12 months’s tax debate.
Sources conversant in the talks say they’re getting ready for all eventualities, together with cut up social gathering management of Congress or the likelihood that Democrats retain management of the White Home.
Republican lawmakers and aides, nonetheless, are rising more and more assured that Trump will defeat Harris based mostly on how polls at the moment are trending. They hope his victory will likely be sufficient to propel Senate and Home Republican candidates to victory on his coattails.
Trump is now lifeless even with Harris in three states Democrats should win to maintain management of the White Home: Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
