Republican leaders are heading into a critical three-week stretch in their scramble to push through President Donald Trump’s agenda.
After turning the page on the government funding fight, the Senate GOP is now focusing on plans for the bill they aim to pass through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process in the coming weeks. Much of the work is going to be staff-driven.
As we scooped, Senate Budget Committee Republicans are planning to meet with the Senate parliamentarian over the next few weeks about reconciliation. During those meetings, Republicans will seek guidance on using the “current policy baseline” as a scoring method to achieve their goal of making the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent.
This is a red line for Senate GOP leaders, provided it can pass muster with the parliamentarian. House Republican leaders are supportive of the effort but want more assurances about the parliamentarian’s blessing for the play. They’re wary about their Senate GOP counterparts messing too much with the delicate balance struck by the House Republican budget resolution.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson have had several meetings about this topic, including last week.
“Both of us understand we’ve got to get this done. And we’re trying to figure out the best way to do that,” Thune told us after his meeting with Johnson. “There is no easy way to explain. This is just a long, arduous process. But we’ll get there.”
Still, House Republicans keep pressing on their Senate colleagues to get going and make some fast decisions.
The House GOP leadership thinks they might be able to take up a compromise budget resolution during the week of April 7, the last for both chambers before a two-week recess.
House Republicans are feeling good after pulling off big wins to get a budget resolution and CR through the chamber with their razor-thin majority. But Johnson’s timeline to wrap up reconciliation in April or May is still creeping up quickly.
On the tax front: House Ways and Means Committee Republicans are expected to have more sessions over the next three weeks to hammer out exactly what members want to do in the tax bill. These will be like the two marathon meetings Ways and Means held last week.
Ways and Means Republican members spent hours meeting at the Library of Congress for last week’s sessions. Last Monday, tax writers spent some of the time talking about options for working Trump’s tax priorities into a bill. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also made an appearance. On Wednesday, much of the conversation was about potential offsets for the tax bill, according to sources familiar with the conversations.
Republican senators on the Finance Committee will keep up regular meetings to talk through their own tax plans.
