Republicans are moving ahead despite a heavy dose of skepticism that a GOP bill, even a relatively narrow one, can get through the House.
Bill Maher presses Elissa Slotkin over Democratic stand against Iran warThom Tillis warns on Iran strategy, slams both parties as shutdown drags on They are moving ahead despite a heavy dose of skepticism that a GOP-only bill, even a relatively narrow one, can get through the House, where Republicans have a threadbare, one-vote majority — and despite the infighting they endured last summer, when months of disagreement over, which is allowing Democrats to block the SAVE America Act and funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Democrats have also, the Senate Budget Committee chairman, launched the reconciliation push on Wednesday with the blessing of Trump and Senate Majority Leader. And in a sign of early coordination, Graham met with his House counterpart, Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington , the same day for what he called a “great” initial conversation. Yet Republicans are hardly on the same page about what should go into a reconciliation bill, and even the legislation’s core pillars have become controversial among congressional Republicans. House rebels view the attempt to squeeze the SAVE America Act into reconciliation, a restrictive budget process that requires all language to have a direct fiscal impact, as capitulation and want to see the entire bill, including its mandates on voter ID and proof of citizenship, signed into law. On Iran, Republicans have stood behind Trump as the conflict drags into a second month, but at least one House conservative, Rep. The headache of muscling a bill through the Senate, a chamber with its own unique set of rules and senator privileges, was enough to keep Thune from pursuing reconciliation until this week. In the House, top Republicans openly described it as But the climate of congressional gridlock has quickly changed that calculus, and Republicans have decided it’s better to risk GOP division than bank on Democratic cooperation. In terms of the filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation, Thune announced earlier this month that thereThe push is unfolding against the backdrop of a monthlong shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security that now hasat each other’s throats. Thune reached a deal with Senate Democrats to leave ICE unfunded, betting that the agency will receive money under reconciliation. House Republicans rejected that piecemeal approach, with Speaker Senate Republicans are trying not to overpromise when it comes to what will make it into a reconciliation bill, and explicitly want to avoid a repeat of last year, when lawmakers stuffed all of Trump’s priorities, from tax cuts to defense to permitting reform, into a single piece of legislation. “It won’t be the one big, beautiful bill — it’s going to be focused on protecting our homeland and helping our troops,” said Graham.for the legislation and have long seen it as a vehicle for policies that were left on the cutting room floor. Johnson, in particular, floated the legislation as a way to tackle healthcare reform, while the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of House conservatives,“I’m glad to know the Senate is interested in reconciliation 2.0,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. “We need to do that. It’s an important legislative tool.” At a policy conference for House Republicans in Doral, Florida, earlier this month, Johnson quipped that “it will not be as big, but it can be In terms of election language, Graham has pitched reconciliation as a “down payment” on the SAVE America Act and gave it only a passing mention in his Wednesday statement announcing the latest budget push. To comply with budget reconciliation rules, Republicans are expected to attach strings to the federal funds states use to administer elections, incentivizing photo ID and other voting requirements.but changed tack when Trump began demanding that the SAVE America Act be attached to DHS funding, a nonstarter for Democrats who claim the bill is an attempt at voter suppression.At the outset, both Graham and Arrington are eyeing pay-fors that could include language to clamp down on welfare fraud, suggesting Republicans believe they will need to offset the legislation’s price tag to bring fiscal hawks on board. “It’s the first thing we discussed – let’s pay for this,” said Sen. Ron Johnson , a member of the Senate Budget Committee. Still, any attempt to rein in entitlement spending could create another rift between those fiscal hawks and more centrist members of the party, as it did when Republicans contemplated a menu of Medicaid changes to keep the cost of Trump’s tax law in check. The party ultimately united behind relatively modest reforms, including new work requirements and eligibility checks, but the offsets became such a hang-up that Thune had to negotiate specificon CNBC. Republicans have also emphasized the reports of mass welfare fraud in Minnesota and other states to argue for reform.But Thune has been slow to embrace the process, in part because it is viewed as so cumbersome. He joked to reporters that Republicans will need a map to keep track of all the possible votes Democrats could force in overnight voting sessions known as “vote-a-ramas.” Last year, Republicans also had to deal with days of trading paper with the parliamentarian, a nonpartisan referee of Senate rules who gets to decide whether language complies with budget reconciliation. That veto power has drawn the ire of House Republicans and even Trump himself, leading to calls for her firing. On Tuesday, Thune said that he expected Republicans would respect her rulings on a second reconciliation bill. “I would expect that’s an iterative process and a back-and-forth, sometimes trading back different ideas to see what works,” Thune said at his weekly press conference. “But obviously, the parliamentarian has a role to play in that process. And in the past, we have respected it. And I would expect we would do that.” In terms of its scope, Thune is urging Republicans to stay “realistic” about what can be accomplished through reconciliation and on Wednesday warned against expansive legislation. Trump, for his part, has previously dismissed the need for another party-line bill, arguing that his tax law encapsulated all of his priorities. “In theory, we’ve gotten everything passed that we need,” Trump said in February. “Now we just need to manage it. But we’ve gotten everything passed that we need for four years.”More recently, Trump has fixated on the SAVE America Act, which cleared the House last month, and has repeatedly called on Senate Republicans to “terminate” the filibuster to pass it. He’s kept an open mind to Thune’s use of reconciliation as a middle ground, but has frequently “I think he’s willing to try all strategies,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday. “I spoke with him about this yesterday, and he said if we can make it work through reconciliation, let’s absolutely do that.”
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