With Republicans expected to win a slim majority in the Senate and maintain their hold on the House, party leaders have been quietly putting together a plan for what to do next.
For now, the plan includes mostly mainstream Republican ideas that will be harder for President Obama to veto.
Senate Republicans told the Washington Examiner that they will push to increase domestic energy production, reduce government regulations, increase education opportunities and set the stage for comprehensive tax reform.
There are dozens of House-passed bills intended to increase jobs and energy production that Senate Republicans are likely to consider, including a job training bill that consolidates government programs and gives states more control over federal grants.
“There are 20 bills that passed the House with significant bipartisan numbers that I believe we can get the 60 votes on in the Senate and put on the president’s desk,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who heads the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
Senate Republican leaders also may call for a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, GOP aides say, in a nod to the conservative base. But without the 67 votes needed to override a veto, they won’t put too much focus on an unwinnable showdown, they add.
“There will be limits to what can be achieved even with Republican control of both chambers, as the president would have two more years in office and the power of the veto,” a top Senate GOP aide told the Examiner.
Instead, Republicans will look to chip away at the law with smaller bills that would repeal or modify parts of it.
The Republican-led House has already passed some of these measures with the support of dozens of Democrats. They include bills to repeal the healthcare law’s medical device tax and eliminate a provision that sets the threshold for full-time employment at 30 hours per week.
Senate Republicans plan to kick off their majority rule with an agenda that aims to win over not only Senate Republicans but a few moderate Democrats as well. Republicans hope to move legislation successfully through both chambers, which would put pressure on President Obama to sign the bills into law.
“You put those things on the president’s desk, then he has to decide whether to veto legislation with broad bipartisan support,” Barrasso told the Examiner.
One key fight Republicans hope to pick is over the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which environmentalists and liberal groups hope to block. Republicans may introduce a bill that provides authorization for construction of the pipeline, which Obama has blocked for the past five years.
Nearly a dozen Senate Democrats expressed support for the project in a letter to Obama in April, and 17 of them voted last year for a nonbinding measure to permit construction of the pipeline, which would stretch from the oil sands of Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.
Tax reform remains a more distant goal, but with the GOP in charge of both chambers the party will likely try to pass comprehensive reform legislation even if it’s not likely to get the president’s signature.
Several key Republicans are already working on tax reform. Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida have authored a bill that would increase the Child Tax Credit and lower corporate tax rates. Republican leaders have signaled interest in parts of the plan.
“There is collaboration already,” said Brian Phillips, spokesman for Lee, who next year will play a top role in policymaking as chairman of the Senate Republican Steering Committee. “We are prepared so that we can get rolling in January and we are not wasting any time.”
Despite the ideas being thrown around, Republican aides stress that they’re still focused on the election.
“We’re not measuring the drapes yet,” one aide told the Examiner, “but obviously members talk to one another.”
