Senate and House Republicans are at odds on the top priorities of President-elect Donald Trump they should tackle first in the next Congress, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., outlined a two-step process to GOP lawmakers on Tuesday, targeting border initiatives, energy deregulation, and defense spending out of the gate and taking on Trump's expiring tax cuts later in 2025. Many of Trump's cuts don't expire until Dec. 31, 2025.
House Republicans are balking, given their slim 220-215 majority that will dwindle to 217-215 for a few months after resignations of lawmakers who are joining Trump's incoming administration. Their fear is not being able to pass both parts of Thune's outline, putting a tax package in jeopardy in the lower chamber, according to the report.
"There are some constituencies within the House and the Senate who would be more inclined to vote for, for example, a tax package or a spending package if there was border," Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, chair of the House Budget Committee, told the Journal. "And there are people who would vote for a border package if there was tax."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who said he attended Thune's meeting, downplayed the order.
"The sequence is less important than the idea that we actually put those points on the board, and we will, and everybody's excited," Johnson said Wednesday.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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