The hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus supports a two-step approach to tackling parts of President-elect Trump's agenda, including the border, taxes and energy, amid intraparty conflict over the approach.
influential caucus said in a letter On Friday, he urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to pass a “fully offset” and “focused” border settlement in January, and then “taxes, spending, energy, bureaucracy and more.”
“President Trump's closest advisers and border experts believe immediate resources are needed to undo the damage done by the Biden administration, secure the border, and begin removals and deportations from day one. We understand.”
“President Trump's agenda will pass, and we must move forward on border security first. Then we should move on to a second, larger reconciliation bill that covers taxes, spending, energy, bureaucracy, and more,” the letter said. continued. “The House Republican Conference must ensure that President Trump is able to deliver on this important America First task priority immediately after being sworn into office.”
This position comes after incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D., recently laid out a plan to delay tax reform to address border security and energy production first. This comes as the two parties are clashing over how to promote President Trump's tax policy.
Supporters of the two-phase strategy argue that the move would allow Trump and the Republican Party to take early action on key campaign issues during his first months in office.
But some House Republicans are concerned about prioritizing border funding over tax reform and the difficulty of using budget reconciliation to get two policy proposals out of Congress in the same year. has been expressed. Budget reconciliation is a special and sometimes lengthy process that allows Republicans to get around Democratic opposition in the Senate. In order for the bill to pass, there must be some significant restrictions.
“There have never been two settlements signed into law in the same year,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-Missouri), chairman of the House's powerful Tax, Legislation and Ways and Means Committee, said earlier this month. “So why do we think a 219-215 majority will overperform?”
“What I would like to see is that we start introducing a tax bill right away,” he said. “I think this is going to be one of our most important bills. We should get right to it.”
