WASHINGTON—The Senate and House of Representatives’s Republican Conferences are moving in opposite directions on legislation to turn President Donald Trump’s policy initiatives into law.
For weeks, Republicans in Congress have been discussing the “budget reconciliation process” as a method of passing conservative policy legislation without securing Democratic support in the Senate, where under normal circumstances at least 60 senators need to support a bill to invoke “cloture” and pass it, overcoming a filibuster. Given Republicans’ 53-seat majority, the likelihood of receiving seven Democratic votes is low.
During the Biden administration, the reconciliation process was used to pass the biggest items of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda—the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
A key point in the negotiations between Senate and House Republicans has been the quantity of reconciliation bills to be passed. Under the rules of Congress, reconciliation bills must be relevant to taxation, spending, and public borrowing—with the Senate only able to consider one single bill per year addressing these topics, or multiple bills with no more than one bill on each topic.
In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has indicated his preference for only one reconciliation bill encompassing all of Trump’s priorities—an approach that Trump appears to prefer. In the Senate, however, Republicans seek to pass two bills over the course of the 119th Congress, with the difference due to internal dynamics in each conference.
“The Senate Budget Committee will be moving forward next week to give the Trump Administration’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, the money he needs to finish the wall, hire ICE agents to deport criminal illegal immigrants, and create more detention beds so that we do not release more dangerous people into the country,” wrote Graham in a statement. “This will be the most transformational border security bill in the history of our country.”
While reconciliation bills have often included policy measures, they are limited by the requirement of a nexus to taxation, spending, and borrowing. Additionally, the fiscal effect of such a bill cannot exceed 10 years.
Johnson has said that a one-bill approach is essential to ensuring a reconciliation package can pass the House. The House Republican Conference currently has a one-vote majority, and fiscally conservative GOP members have demanded significant cuts to public spending in exchange for support.
“For the House, the one bill strategy makes the most sense. We have a very diverse conference,” Johnson told reporters in Doral, Florida, at a meeting of his conference there on Jan. 29.
Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
