House Republican leaders laid out their biggest legislative priorities for next year in a closed-door Tuesday meeting, including funding the U.S.-Mexico border wall, cutting various Democratic policies and spending programs enacted under Joe Biden, and locking in Donald Trump’s tax cuts.
In their weekly conference meeting, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) highlighted the various pillars they aim to pass using a so-called reconciliation bill, a procedural tool they can use to pass legislation without Democratic support when they control both the Senate and House majorities next year. Priorities also included easing energy costs for consumers by reducing regulations and cutting down on the size and scope of the administrative state.
“I assembled committee chairs last week to go through what we will be doing in budget reconciliation starting in January. … We laid out a very aggressive first 100 days agenda,” Scalise told reporters after the closed-door meeting.
“What we’re focused on right now is being ready [on] day one. … We’re already making plans, working with President Trump,” he added.
House and Senate GOP leaders have been privately discussing for months what they want to pass under reconciliation. Scalise has been privately talking with committee chairs and the various factions within the House GOP as leadership has sought to collect ideas over the summer. He didn’t point to many specific details of the policy agenda in the meeting Tuesday, but explained the overall goals over the next two years.
“We laid out this morning for the House Republicans … kind of the overarching points, the overarching pieces of the reconciliation package,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the meeting.
Additionally, Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) announced in the meeting that Republican leaders would be doing listening sessions with members on reconciliation next month, according to another person in the room, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
Republicans are also trying to figure out whether they can count the president-elect’s tariff plan to offset the cost of other policies included in the reconciliation package. A member questioned that assertion during the meeting, though people who were in the room indicated lawmakers have not determined if that is possible yet.
“We are going to be having a lot of discussions with President Trump about the framework. Obviously, keeping the current tax rates where they are — not having any tax increases — is the main objective,” Scalise told POLITICO after the meeting. “There were a lot of other items that President Trump put on the table during the campaign that we want to work with him on. So we’ve got to look at the numbers, make sure everything adds up, because budget reconciliation does give you some limitations.”
The Senate has strict parameters on what it can include in a reconciliation bill — it essentially comes down to what is a change to the budget, which is allowed, vs. what is a change to policy, which is not. The Senate parliamentarian is responsible for ruling on whether certain priorities can pass via reconciliation or not.
Jen Scholtes contributed to this report.