Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday he expects to pass President-elect Trump’s agenda through one big reconciliation package before Memorial Day.
In an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Johnson reiterated that Republicans will try to pack in as many policy items as possible into a large reconciliation bill, which would avoid the 60-vote threshold necessary to pass most legislation in the Senate.
Reconciliation legislation requires a simple majority, or 50 votes, in the upper chamber.
“We’re 15 days out from the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump for his second term. And we want to make sure that we’re jump-starting the agenda now over the next two weeks, so that he’s prepared and ready on day one,” Johnson said. “We have a lot to do, as you know. And we have been putting all the plays together and figuring out the sequence of how we’re going to run those plays. And we’re really excited about it.”
“At the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill. And there’s a lot of merit to that, because we can put it all together, one big up-or-down vote, which can save the country, quite literally, because there are so many elements to it. And it’ll give us a little bit more time to negotiate that and get it right,” he said.
Johnson said there are some “low-hanging fruit” bills, including those that would address the border, that he will put on the floor right away for a vote. But immigration and deportation policies will also be included in the reconciliation package, Johnson said, as will tax cuts and energy permitting reform.
Johnson said Trump also asked that the debt ceiling be dealt with before June.
“I think we’re going to have to do it in that bill,” Johnson said about raising or eliminating the debt ceiling.
Asked for a “realistic timeline” on getting the large bill through to the president’s desk, Johnson said that would happen “certainly by May, yes.”
He said Republicans are “targeting a vote in the House maybe in the first week of April,” adding that vote may come “maybe as soon as April 3, and then move it over to the Senate.”
“That would put that bill on the president’s desk for signature by the end of April. That would be fantastic,” Johnson said. “And, in a worst-case scenario, Memorial Day.”
Johnson said he hopes addressing many legislative priorities in one bill will reduce the likelihood of losing members’ support.
“A lot of moving pieces, a lot of things to negotiate, a lot of opinions on all that, so we will be working long, long hours with whiteboards, making sure every Republican is on board, because, remember, I will be dealing with the smallest margin in U.S. history for much of the first 100 days. But we’re going to get it done.”
