House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) maintained that Republicans will move forward with President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to increase the debt limit, saying it will be tucked into the massive reconciliation bill GOP leaders plan to pass by early spring.
The debt limit fight arose in mid-December after Trump made an eleventh-hour demand for Republicans to include it in the government spending deal, something many hard-line Republicans rejected.
Instead, GOP leaders made a handshake agreement with holdouts to include the debt ceiling increase in their forthcoming reconciliation bill in exchange for spending cuts elsewhere — something that would allow Republicans to circumvent Democrats on the details but would require Johnson to get his most unruly members on board.
“The intention is to handle the debt limit in reconciliation, and that way, as the Republican Party, the party in charge of both chambers, we then get to determine the details,” Johnson said Tuesday. “If it runs through regular order and regular process and as a standalone, or as part of the appropriations, for example, then you have to have both parties negotiating — and we feel like we’re in better stead to do it ourselves.”
Johnson outlined the schedule for budget reconciliation over the weekend, laying out an aggressive timeline to pass key agenda items for Trump by early April.
JOHNSON LAYS OUT AMBITIOUS TIMELINE TO PASS RECONCILIATION BILL FOR TRUMP AGENDA
It’s not yet clear what Johnson’s majority will look like at that point. However, it’s likely the speaker will be operating with only a one- or two-seat majority, meaning he’ll need to get almost every Republican on board.
That could be easier said than done, as a faction of the GOP conference has vowed never to raise the debt limit and even voted against the government spending legislation that included those provisions last month.
Many lawmakers in the House Freedom Caucus staunchly opposed the debt limit request, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who said he would not support an increase if it did not include spending cuts.
It’s not clear what Republicans would target in their cuts. However, Johnson ruled out chipping away at Medicare or Social Security benefits.
“No, look, [Trump] has made very clear, Social Security and Medicare have to be preserved,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday. “No one is coming in with the intention of cutting benefits in any way or anything.”
The reconciliation legislation being crafted by Republicans will include policies ranging from taxes and energy to immigration and national defense, all tied together in a single bill to be passed by the House and Senate.
Republicans have been planning for months to use budget reconciliation to secure early wins for Trump, utilizing the rare procedural tool to circumvent Democratic opposition in the Senate to advance key agenda items. There are certain rules for how often reconciliation can be used, and Republicans would only be able to utilize it for budget-related legislation such as taxes, spending, and the debt limit.
However, Republicans can’t start moving their spending priorities through Congress on Day One. Reconciliation requires both the House and Senate to pass a budget resolution, which sets tax and spending levels that are then directed to specific committees to achieve a certain budgetary outcome.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told reporters Tuesday that leadership is already in communication with committee chairs to plan details of the reconciliation budget.
“The committees will be working by March to actually get the policies in place to not only secure the border, to get good energy policy in place, to reverse a lot of these radical regulations that are crushing families across America, but to just get Washington to have some common sense, again,” Scalise said. “And then to move that through the House by April, by Easter.”
Republicans will meet in Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to continue hashing out details for reconciliation and other priorities in the coming months. Among those meetings will be with the House Freedom Caucus, including those who oppose a debt limit increase.
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The meeting comes as Republican leaders in the House and Senate have disagreed on whether to move forward with one massive reconciliation bill versus two smaller bills. Johnson said he plans to meet with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Tuesday to discuss strategy. Thune has endorsed the two-track process, while Johnson has argued for one.
“We still remain convinced [in the House] that the one-bill strategy is the best way to go. But there’s some senators with different ideas,” Johnson said Tuesday. “They’re all dear friends and colleagues and we’re going to work on this together, we will get the two chambers united on the same strategy.”