Incoming Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is planning an aggressive schedule to pass the GOP’s legislative priorities next year as Republicans prepare for unified control of Washington.
Thune outlined his plans for two reconciliation bills at a Senate policy retreat on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the matter. The first, to be passed within 30 days of President-elect Donald Trump taking office, would tackle energy, defense, and the border. A second bill would reauthorize expiring tax cuts later in the year.
Each is designed to circumvent the filibuster to get through the Senate with a bare 51 votes.
Thune will be working closely with Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to enact the agenda after Republicans swept both chambers of Congress and the White House in November’s elections.
Trump called into the Tuesday policy retreat, according to one source, to congratulate the newly elected senators who delivered Republicans a 53-seat majority next year. Johnson also attended the meeting, later telling reporters that he agrees with the two-bill approach.
Thune signaled a break in leadership style on Tuesday as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), freshly elected as minority leader, prepares to hand over control of the Senate floor. Speaking to his Republican colleagues at the Library of Congress, Thune said the Senate will be in session on Fridays and that he will clamp down on how long he allows votes to stay open.
Right now, senators depart town on Thursdays and can take more than an hour to head over to the Senate chamber to cast their vote.
The decision to split the tax bill into a separate proposal gives Republicans more room to navigate deadlines to extend the debt limit and government funding in the first half of the year.
The tax cuts, signed by Trump in 2017, do not expire until December.
Republicans will also be consumed with approving Trump’s Cabinet nominees, some of whom face an uncertain path through the Senate, as soon as he takes office on Jan. 20.
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Some elements of the border and energy bill could be difficult to pass. The process of reconciliation, a legislative workaround that short-circuits the filibuster, remains subject to tight rules that require every provision to have a budgetary impact.
Republicans, for example, would be able to include additional border wall funding, but changes to asylum and parole laws might be rejected by the Senate parliamentarian.
