WASHINGTON — With new members sworn in and the 2024 election results now certified, attention in the Capitol is turning to how the new Republican-led Congress will approach implementing President-elect Donald Trump’s second term agenda.
In particular, conversations on Monday centered on whether Trump’s wide-ranging priorities should be shepherded through Congress in one bill or two.
Speaking to reporters at the Capitol on Monday, newly reelected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he and the president-elect – who will make his return to the White House in exactly two weeks – are in “on-going and constant dialogue” on the topic, noting they spoke just a few hours before as well as on Sunday night.
Johnson added he and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who replaced Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell as the top Republican in the upper chamber, were already engaged in talks on the topic Monday morning as well.
“Some people like the one-bill strategy, some people like the two-bill strategy. We will work that out,” Johnson said, stressing what is most important to Trump: “What he wants to ensure is that we deliver the America-first agenda.”
“We’re going to get that job done,” he added.
It comes as the president-elect over the last two days has sent mixed messages on exactly how he wants his campaign trail promises carried through Congress. In an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Monday morning, Trump said he would “prefer” one “big, beautiful” piece of legislation but left the door open to accepting the two-bill strategy Thune had been floating.
“I would prefer one, but I will do whatever needs to be done to get it passed,” Trump said on the show. “And you know, we have a lot of respect for Senator Thune, as you know. He may have a little bit of a different view of it.”
The less decisive answer came after Trump, in a post on his social media site on Sunday night, asserted that Congressional lawmakers are working on “one powerful bill” that would span the scope of his agenda.
In the post, the president-elect specifically mentioned securing the border, boosting American energy and renewing his 2017 tax cuts. He also reiterated his call for an end to taxes on income workers earn from tips, the lost income of which he said would be made up through tariffs he intends to impose on other countries. Both are policies that emerged as key parts of his pitch to voters ahead of last November.
“Republicans must unite, and quickly deliver these Historic Victories for the American People,” Trump wrote. “Get smart, tough, and send the Bill to my desk to sign as soon as possible.”
Appearing on Fox News on Sunday, Johnson indicated he was proceeding with the one-bill tactic, adding that it would give Republicans more time to negotiate and “get it right.” He said he believed he could get such a bill to Trump’s desk in April or by Memorial Day in the “worst-case scenario.”
Trump on Monday morning also conceded that such an approach would likely take more time to get across the finish line than two separate bills – one for instance that focused on the border and energy policies and another that centered on taxes, a strategy that could have the potential to give the incoming president one quick policy win early in his second term,
“My preference is one big, as I say, one big, beautiful bill. Now to do that takes longer. You know, to submit it takes longer, actually,” Trump told Hewitt. “I would say I’d live with that.”
Republicans leaders are planning to pass the bills through a process known as reconciliation, which allows the Senate to advance legislation with a simple majority of votes rather than the 60-vote threshold typically needed to get bills past a filibuster in the upper chamber. The GOP holds 53 of 100 seats in the Senate.