The GOP is only just securing unified control of government — but they already feel the clock ticking to get President-elect Donald Trump's agenda passed, reported Politico on Monday.
This comes at a time when Republicans only barely were able to re-appoint House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) with one of the narrowest House majorities in modern history — and when House and Senate Republicans are bitterly divided and facing chaos over how to use the reconciliation process.
"Under the most ambitious timeline put forth by Speaker Mike Johnson, it will be Memorial Day before that bill lands on Trump’s desk. Deeply skeptical Senate Republicans are readying their own conflicting plans in case the House falters," reported Meredith Lee Hill. "'Everybody is feeling the pressure now of time,' said Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus who has been pushing for quicker action. 'In a short period, we’ve got to make something happen.'"
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) had an even more blunt assessment: “We’re running out of time.”
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The House, along with Trump himself, want to use the budget reconciliation process to pass one big, unified bill that tackles energy, immigration, and extending tax cuts, to keep the pressure on far-right anti-spending hardliners who they fear could tank individual portions of the agenda if they're not all tied together. The Senate prefers to split off the tax provisions into their own bill to ensure at least those can pass even if everything else goes down.
Nor is spending the only obstacle; even Trump's mass deportation plans could face at least some resistance from members of his own party.
All of this, the report noted, is taking shape as congressional Republicans "are counting on Trump to settle things down with a flurry of Day One executive orders, many of which are expected to deal with immigration and reversing Biden-era climate and pandemic policies. Those actions, they hope will dampen the hard-liners’ push for immediate and sweeping legislative action on the border."