Written by David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump and U.S. Senate Republicans spent nearly two hours in a closed-door meeting on his next agenda on Wednesday, but emerged without a clear path to passing his plan to cut taxes, boost fossil fuel production and increase production. – Deporting millions of illegal immigrants.
Trump, in his first visit to the US Capitol since his supporters stormed the building on January 6, 2021, held a wide-ranging discussion that touched on his Cabinet nominees, the Panama Canal, oil drilling in Alaska as well as his legislative agenda. .
With narrow majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, Republicans in both chambers disagreed over whether to enact Trump's tax, border, energy and military priorities in one or two pieces of legislation.
Senate Republicans want to split Trump's agenda into two bills, allowing them to make quick inroads on border and energy policy before turning to the thorny issue of taxes. House Republicans warn that their narrow margin of control threatens to fail to pass a second bill to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year.
“There's a lot of talk about two, there's a lot of talk about one. But it doesn't matter. The end result is the same. We'll get something done,” Trump told reporters after the meeting.
The lack of clarity has encouraged some Senate Republicans to envision a legislative “horse race” against the House.
“We all want to get it all done,” Senator John Hoeven told reporters. “If we can move forward on two bills, and that seems to be going better, then it's a horse race.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the Senate is ready to start moving forward with its own legislation, but wants to give House Republicans time to foster unity within their sometimes divided ranks.
“It's an ongoing conversation. I'll put it that way,” Thune said.
The president-elect is scheduled to begin three days of meetings on Friday with House Republicans at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Legislative maneuvering
Republicans will also have to grapple with how to offset the effects of the new tax cuts on the country's growing $36 trillion debt.
In a possible sign of things to come, Trump was forced to intervene in the House of Representatives last week when House Speaker Mike Johnson initially failed to get the votes needed to be re-elected to his top job. After nearly two hours of negotiations, a call from Trump helped convince two hard-line Republican opponents to switch sides and support Johnson.
“President Trump has earned MVP status in resolving the Speaker's vote. We'll need him to play MVP in getting these bills done. Just common sense,” Sen. Thom Tillis told reporters before Wednesday's meeting.
Republicans intend to pass Trump's agenda using a complex legislative maneuver that would allow them to bypass Democratic opposition in the Senate. The Senate Republican majority (53-47) is too narrow to overcome a 60-vote Senate filibuster on most legislation.
In the House of Representatives, the 219-seat majority is expected to dwindle to 217 to 215 after Trump takes office in less than two weeks. Two Republicans in the House of Representatives are preparing to leave Congress and join his administration.
Trump is expected to meet on Friday with members of the conservative Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives. He will also meet with committee chairs on Saturday and with other Republican members of the House on Sunday, lawmakers and aides said.
U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, a Freedom Caucus member and one of two holdout Republicans persuaded by Trump to support Johnson last week, said he plans to ask Trump to use his influence to support aggressive spending cuts that would help offset a higher federal debt cap. .
US Representative Dan Crenshaw, who will meet with Trump on Sunday, sees the discussions as a starting point for the president-elect's outreach to Capitol Hill during his second term.
“Trump has a history of being the most engaged president with members of Congress,” Crenshaw said. “And this is just the beginning.”
Some Republicans warned that Trump might overestimate his power if he played too strong a role in legislative negotiations.
“We're independent. I mean, we're a co-equal branch of government. Sometimes we forget that the president doesn't rule the Senate and the House. I think that was the mistake he learned the first time.” US Representative Kevin Hearn, who chairs the House Republican Policy Committee, said.
Hearn said he will be among the lawmakers who will meet with Trump on Sunday.
