With both health insurance and tax reform on deck, House Republicans plan to double the “100-day” timeline that lawmakers have traditionally promised for implementing new agendas.
Lawmakers hope to complete major items on their wish list within 200 days, a schedule that will give them a more realistic timeline to repeal and replace Obamacare and overhaul the tax code, but a slower pace than originally promised by President-elect Trump.
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According to a GOP aide, leaders described the 200-day timeline as a calendar to help keep the agenda moving.
The Trump team is now endorsing the timeline.
Many political analysts believe the GOP and incoming Trump administration will have only six months to usher through major agenda wish-list items. After that, 2018 election politics will begin to creep into the decisions made by lawmakers, slowing down legislative momentum.
The Republican calendar aims to repeal and replace parts of Obamacare by March, while leaders told rank-and-file they want to complete tax reform before the August recess.
GOP leaders have been using the ticking clock to discourage internal infighting and to speed along passage of legislation. Rank-and-file Republicans, for instance, have become increasingly concerned over a measure to repeal Obamacare and Republican leaders are eager to stem a revolt.
“The message was, let’s get this done so we can then move on to tax reform,” Rep. Doug Collins, R-Colo., said after the GOP huddled over healthcare reform last week. “We can’t move to tax reform until we do the repeal.”
But Republicans will need more than 100 days to accomplish two major legislative reform efforts.
In addition to tax reform and healthcare reform, GOP lawmakers want to pass legislation that rolls back government regulations that they have deemed as onerous and a hindrance to economic growth.
“Those are the three main goals between now and August,” an aide said.
The GOP calendar disregards a 100-day checklist that has long been used to judge new administrations and legislatures dating back to the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.
The House Republican majority in 1995 pledged an ambitious 100-day agenda that set tax cuts and term limits as main goals. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi promised to move even faster when she became speaker in 2007, introducing a 100-hour agenda that included a bill to raise the minimum wage and legislation to cut oil company tax subsidies.
President Obama delivered a speech accounting for his first 100 days in office and both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Trump outlined 100-day agendas.
Trump told voters that his 100-day plan will include renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, lifting restrictions on oil and natural gas production and blocking all federal funding for so-called “sanctuary cities,” among many other promises.
“On Nov. 8, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities, and honesty to our government,” Trump promised voters in his 100-day blueprint.
Trump also originally pledged to reduce taxes within his first 100 days, but has changed the goal to 200 days.
Trump’s Capitol Hill surrogate is his vice-president elect, Mike Pence, who is a former House lawmaker with close ties to GOP representatives.
Pence said he is working “hand in glove” with Congressional Republicans on the agenda, which he has described as a 100-day and 200-day timeline for major agenda items.
In December, Pence told the Wall Street Journal the first 200 days would include reforming immigration laws, repealing and replacing Obamacare and major tax reform.
“I think the only thing that will surprise them is that Washington, D.C., is going to get an awful lot done in a short period of time,” Pence said.
