House and Senate Republicans compete this week against each other to see who can advance President Trump's vast domestic agenda as the two rooms advance contrasting legislative strategies.
In the House, speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republicans will continue to work on budget resolutions that will advance Trump's priorities in one bill, despite the fact that such an agreement will escape days. I'm swearing. Lawmakers are set to blow away another voluntary deadline as lawmakers are in conflict over important issues.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Republicans are making efforts to advance Trump's agenda with two separate bills.
Chamberv. Chamber Battle maintains disagreement on the best strategies to do so, as GOP lawmakers want to enact Trump wishlist items.
Also this week, the Senate will vote for many of Trump's cabinet candidates, including Tarshi Gabbard for the Director of National Intelligence, one of the president's most controversial picks. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
House GOP is working to resolve budgets
House Republicans will continue to work together this week towards a deal on budget resolutions. This has so far escaped the group amid disagreements about spending cuts.
Johnson told reporters last week that the House Budget Committee plans to begin the settlement process this week on Tuesday before Louisiana leaves before attending the Super Bowl with Trump. .
However, when he appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” Johnson said the meeting was “very close” to landing on an agreement for budget resolution, while the group would once again blow the voluntary deadline.
“We were going to do some Budget Committee markup next week. Details are really important so maybe we'll push it up a little more,” Johnson said. “Please remember that I currently have the smallest margin in history for a two-vote margin. So we need to make sure everyone agrees before we move forward with the project. Final It's a product and has some more boxes to check, but it's very close.”
This delay is another black eye for Johnson, who laid out an ambitious timeline to enact Trump's agenda, but has not been able to meet his targets so far. But interests are rising — Senate Republicans move forward with two track plans, with two rooms heading for the collision course as the House struggles to find a way forward with a single settlement bill .
On Sunday, Johnson reiterated, “The house has to drive this process, and we're going to 'we're going to bring everyone together.'
It remains unclear where the negotiations are currently. Johnson spent time with Trump in the Super Bowl on Sunday, as planned. The speaker told reporters that he would discuss a big game with the president.
When lawmakers left the Capitol last week, many important issues remained resolved in House GOP's settlement efforts. For example, lawmakers said there are still questions about raising the state and local tax (salt) deduction cap, which Trump said he wanted to do and said he would increase his debt cap. But Johnson shows that debt restrictions are likely to achieve that in the bill.
Mark up Senate GOP budget resolution
Meanwhile, on the Senate side, the Budget Committee is planning to mark up the first budget resolution for two planned Trump Agenda bills, and as the House struggles to reach an agreement, it has put a new set of its own settlement strategies. I'm moving forward.
The measure, announced last week by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (Rs.C.), will provide $175 billion to secure a tropical border and $150 to strengthen national defense. Annual spending increases by $85.5 billion, with $85.5 billion payable at budget offsets.
The Chamber of Commerce is scheduled to mark up the resolution on Wednesday.
If the Senate agrees to the action and the House continues its lawsuit, Republicans will unlock the budget settlement process. After the border defense package, Senate Republicans moved another law to extend Trump's tax cuts in 2017.
Graham rolled out a resolution last week. The house continued to struggle to reach an agreement on its own budget resolution, and ended up packing all of Trump's priorities into one bill.
On Fox News on Sunday, Johnson noted the difficulties he faces at home compared to the Senate dynamics.
“Thank you for the enthusiasm of the Senate. We have it at home too. But, as I reminded my friend Lindsay, I have about 170 additional personalities to deal with, and he There we have only 53 on the Republican side. We have a very diverse caucus with a lot of interest, but we are going to get this job done,” Johnson said.
Senate votes for more Trump candidates
The Senate will vote for many of Trump's cabinet candidates this week.
On Monday, the Chamber of Commerce will hold a procedural vote to make Gabbard's nomination the Director of National Intelligence after the former lawmaker advanced from the committee by 9-8 votes.
Gabbard garnered criticism for her 2017 visit with former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, her comments about Edward Snowden, and comments about the Russian-Ukraine War.
Despite having escaped from the committee, Gabbard's nomination has yet been completely out of the woods. Sen. Mitch McConnell (r-ky.) is considered a “no” vote, but Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) has said that after her hearing he has “questioned more about her confirmation.” I let him know that I was doing it. Assuming that all Democrats voted against Gabbard, she not only loses three Republicans, but is still confirmed.
Additionally, the Senate is expected to make a procedural vote for the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to become a secretary to the Department of Health and Human Services. The former presidential candidate, who scrutinized his vaccine skepticism, resigned from the committee earlier this month with a 14-13 vote.
Apart from these two picks, the Senate was appointed as a small business administrator for Howard Lutnick's Secretary of Commerce, Brook Rollins's Secretary of Agriculture, and Kelly Rollin's nomination. A procedural vote will be made.
At the committee level, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on Thursday for being appointed FBI director for Kash Patel. Patel elicited a controversy over his previous comments on how he runs the agency and whether he will retaliate.
House GOP to hold a USAID hearing
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing this week at USAID amid efforts by the Trump administration to shut down government agencies.
The hearing entitled “The Betrayal of USAID” is scheduled to take place at 8:30am on Thursday. Former Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FLA) and former USAID Chief of Staff William “Bill” Steiger are set to testify. Yoho previously served as chairman of the committee's Asia-Pacific Subcommittee.
The hearing calls on panel chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-FLA.) to hold a hearing with Trump officials on the democrats of the USAID, and wary of their efforts. I'll come after I call. They asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to ask a question.
Last week, USAID staff reportedly fell to around 300 employees, a massive decline due to the estimated workforce of around 10,000.
