DC Republicans in disarray as senators battle Congress for Trump's budget approval

07 February

When Republican President Donald Trump was sworn into a nonconsecutive second term on January 20, his party had small single-digit majorities in both branches of Congress.

Republicans, in 2024, flipped the U.S. Senate, where they now have a 53-47 majority. And they held their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

But GOP majorities in the House and the Senate don't necessarily see eye to eye when it comes to Trump's budgetary and legislative goals.

In an article published on February 7, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that Senate Republicans are hoping Trump will side with them in their budget discussions with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and other Republicans in the House.

"Republican senators say they want to convince President Trump to support their plan to take the lead on a budget reconciliation package when they meet with him at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, (February 7)," Bolton explains. "Republican senators say getting Trump to pick a side in the standoff between Senate and House Republicans over which chamber should move first on the president's legislative agenda is one of several topics they hope to discuss at a two-hour dinner reception scheduled for Friday evening."

A Republican senator, quoted anonymously, said it will be "helpful" if Trump backs Senate Republicans' ideas for a legislative package.

The senator told The Hill, "There's still differing opinions and no single clear option as to one bill, two bills, three bills for reconciliation. We need to talk about spending levels generally, plan for debt ceiling."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota), Bolton notes, "called for breaking up Trump's agenda into two reconciliation bills, one focused on border security, energy reform and defense spending, and a second focused on extending the 2017 tax cuts." But Johnson, Bolton adds, "instead proposed combining all those elements into one big package, reasoning that it will be easier to get his razor-thin House GOP majority to pass it if it includes more of Trump's priorities."

Another Republican senator told The Hill, "There's a lot of uncertainty. People are wondering what’s happening."

Read The Hill's full article at this link.

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