WASHINGTON—Leaders of the House of Representatives on Feb. 7 told The Epoch Times that they intend to release a “budget reconciliation” plan to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda over the forthcoming weekend, while the Senate announced it would begin its own parallel process with a different approach.
The word “reconciliation” has dominated Congress for the past several weeks as Republican leaders of the Senate and House negotiate a pathway to enacting measures that Trump has prioritized, such as extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and increasing funds for border security. The “budget reconciliation” process allows Congress to pass bills related to taxation, spending, and borrowing by avoiding a filibuster in the Senate—where Republicans have only 53 votes and rules mandate a 60-vote cloture requirement—though the duration of their fiscal effect is limited to 10 years.
House Republicans had been due to release their reconciliation blueprint on Feb. 7, though no agreement was reached between factions of the conference after marathon negotiations the previous day. House Speaker Mike Johnson, however, appeared optimistic that negotiations would conclude soon and that drafting of the budget resolution—a prerequisite for reconciliation—would begin by Feb. 11.
“On reconciliation ... it will be through the weekend,” Johnson told The Epoch Times. “We are almost there ... the expectation is that we will be marking up a budget early next week, potentially as early as Tuesday—the resolution—and that will, of course, begin the process and unlock the whole reconciliation.”
Much of the disagreement between the Senate and House has been about the quantity of bills. The Senate, which can only consider one reconciliation bill per year, has insisted upon two bills over the 119th Congress. By contrast, Johnson has emphasized that the Republican-led House—where the party currently has a one-seat majority—can realistically only pass one bill.
“Lindsey Graham and I played phone tag for the last 36 hours ... I sent him a text message earlier this morning about where we are in the process and how it’s moving aggressively,” Johnson said about the disagreement.
The Senate and House will have to pass the exact same concurrent resolution to order reconciliation and then the exact same versions of any substantive bill before it can become law.
Republicans have repeatedly said that the whole process will not increase the deficit. Given their plans to extend tax cuts and lower other taxes, this will likely only be possible after significant spending cuts. However, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times on Feb. 7 that the eventual plan would be “revenue neutral” by stimulating economic growth, which would increase tax revenue.
“There is no way that good energy policy, pro-growth tax cuts, [and] the kind of deregulation that the president is going to do will not get us to significantly higher growth,” Arrington said. “There will be additional growth in ... opening up trade markets and having reciprocal trade, instead of the unfair and unlevel playing field that we have today.”
“We still have to work out details,” Arrington said when asked whether an agreement was likely. “I’m not going to get into the details. We’re making good headway.”
The package’s deficit neutrality will likely be critical to securing the votes of fiscal conservatives, particularly in the House Freedom Caucus, from whom cutting government spending has been a years-long rallying cry. It is highly unlikely that any Democrats will vote for the package, which means Republicans can only afford to lose three votes in either body to pass the bill.
Johnson reiterated the commitment to deficit neutrality on Feb. 7.
“We’re the team that is trying to restore fiscal sanity and responsibility here. The Republican Party is devoted to that cause, and when we extend the tax cuts, we have to make sure that we don’t have a big impact on the deficit, to increase the deficit, and that’s what all the work and deliberation is required to get the agreement on where those savings will be,” Johnson said. “[Deficit neutrality] is our commitment. That’s [what] we’re trying to achieve,” he said.
Still, there remains no clarity on how much needs to be saved, or even spent, to accomplish this process. When asked about how much the package would cost, Arrington responded: “I don’t have a number.”
