President-elect Donald Trump is asking Republican lawmakers to authorize the agenda for his second term by passing a single, all-encompassing bill within the first 100 days of his administration.
“I favor one bill,” Trump said in a radio interview on Jan. 6. “My preference is ... one big, beautiful bill.”
Republicans may be able to achieve that with control of both the House and Senate. However, House and Senate leaders have yet to agree on the details.
At stake is the success of the president-elect’s second-term agenda, which hinges on quick action on the border and the economy.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) favors a two-bill approach.
Thune called for “a once-in-a-generation investment in border security and immigration enforcement” during a Dec. 17 floor speech, followed by a second reconciliation bill to extend the Trump tax cuts.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) thinks the best way to get Trump’s ambitious agenda through the House is with a single bill. “I think at the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill,” Johnson said in a Dec. 6 interview on Fox News.
A single bill may be easier to get past the Republican deficit hawks, who will likely object to raising the debt ceiling, which is part of the plan. That’s according to Henry Olsen, a senior fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center. The one-bill approach would force Republicans to take a yes-or-no vote on all of Trump’s agenda.
Two bills are fine with Trump, as long as it all gets through. “I favor one bill. I also want to get everything passed,” Trump said in a radio interview on Monday. “So I’m open to that also.”
Whether one bill or two, the legislation would be part of the budget reconciliation process. Reconciliation bills are useful because they allow legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority, 51 votes, rather than a three-fifths majority, 60 votes.
This bill, or bills, would provide the funds for Trump’s agenda in at least these areas: border security and deportations, extending tax cuts, incentivizing domestic manufacturing, and increasing domestic energy production.
Republicans also want to do a major spend in increasing military readiness.
Will it be one bill or two? “We’re working through all that. The process issues, to me, are a lot less important than the results,” Thune said on Jan. 6.
—Lawrence Wilson
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