1 day Ago By Arjun Singh
DORAL, Florida—House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Jan. 28 signaled that the House Republican Conference has reached an agreement on a blueprint to enact President Donald Trump’s policy priorities, following discussions at a members retreat.
Most of the conference has spent the last 48 hours at the Trump National Doral, which is the Trump Organization’s golf club and resort in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance addressed members on Jan. 27 and Jan.
28, respectively, as they sought to negotiate an agreement between different factions. During a “fireside chat” for reporters on Jan. 28, Johnson said that a “blueprint” for the legislative process would be announced on Jan.
29. “The blueprint is planned to be prepared by tomorrow, by the time we leave, for the budget resolution,” Johnson said during the event. “The resolution will be marked up in the Budget Committee in the first week of February.
“In March, we will begin the committee process,” Johnson noted, referring to the actual bill, signaling that it could come up for a floor vote by April. Johnson also indicated that the bill would be “deficit neutral” and not affect benefits paid under Medicare and the Social Security program. To ensure these promises, in addition to Trump’s plan to cut (and not raise) taxes, Johnson’s admission suggests the bill may impose significant cuts to federal spending.
Republicans are seeking to use the special expedited “budget reconciliation” process to enact Trump’s agenda to overcome any filibuster by Democrats in the Senate and obviate the need to obtain 60 votes for “cloture,” or to end a debate. The process comes with restrictions. A concurrent budget resolution is required to be passed outlining the bill’s contents, which can only include provisions germane to taxation, spending, and borrowing.
The latter requirement may excise several policy reforms that Trump is seeking to pass in Congress, particularly those concerning illegal immigration. Additionally, the Senate’s rules only permit that body to consider one reconciliation bill per year. Some Senators have been lobbying Trump to support passing two such bills during the 119th Congress, just as President Joe Biden did with the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Johnson, however, has opposed this idea and called for one bill. “For the House, the one bill strategy makes the most sense. We have a very diverse conference,” Johnson said.
“We have interests and district-level specific concerns that are just not at issue in the Senate, and so our math is more complicated ...
The one bill strategy ensures the highest probability of success.” Other members of Congress in attendance spoke positively about the negotiations. “[They’re] all right.
You’re either at the table or you’re on the menu,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told The Epoch Times.
“I fully support it,” Johnson said. “It’s a temporary pause. .
.. This is, I believe, an application of common sense.
...
This is the appropriate thing for a new administration to do. I think it’s going to be harmless in the end.” Johnson also announced that House Republicans would seek to pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act—a bill that seeks to prevent foreign nationals from voting in U.
S. federal elections, which passed the House during the 118th Congress but received no action in the Senate..
