Big Agenda, Big Battles Ahead as GOP Vows To ‘Maximize’ Final Weeks of Power

Republicans are attempting to put their internal drama behind them and race the clock to send as many bills to President Trump as possible before the Democratic takeover of both chambers in 2027. But even as they pledge unity, cracks are showing among fiscal and defense hawks and a leadership that has had difficulty shepherding lawmakers with competing priorities. After a tense closed-door meeting Tuesday, the Republican Senate Conference adopted a resolution declaring, “It is the sense of the GOP Conference that we will maximize the 54 days we have with congressional majorities, to confirm every judicial nominee and every executive nominee that the conference approves of, to pass our core Republican priorities, and to do everything humanly possible to pass a reconciliation bill before Jan. 3.”With GOP lawmakers hoping to maximize their 52 days remaining, they are feverishly attempting to wrap up a number of lingering bills. The Senate cancelled its recess for the rest of the week while the House is expected to be in session through Thanksgiving. Whether that means lawmakers working around the clock will get things done remains to be seen. “I am happy to stay here 24 hours a day, seven days a week until the work is done,” Congressman Randy Fine, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday. “This country has made it 250 years. God has chosen to test us for the next two but as we get prepared for that we cannot lose sight of the time that we have to try to make a difference.”Mr. Fine and his fellow Freedom Caucus members urged House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune to use their time to “deny” Democrats “every legislative leverage point possible.” They called for codifying President Trump’s border policies and voter ID law and completing “fiscally responsible” spending bills. Topping the to-do list in the Senate is confirmation of nominees — 25 federal judicial picks and nearly 100 executive branch nominations remain pending. The Senate Judiciary Committee has announced an executive meeting and vote next week for at least 13 of those judicial nominees after sending four district judges forward on Tuesday for a final Senate floor vote that has yet to be scheduled.Among the biggest matters facing lawmakers on both sides of the aisle is funding to keep the government’s lights on after the current stopgap expires on December 11. Lawmakers have not been shy in recent years to allow a government shutdown to occur after it fails to fund in a timely manner the 12 congressional appropriations bills due by September 30. To avoid the loss of funding for nonessential services, Congress in September passed a 72-day extension of the current-year funding. The expiration was set after the midterm election, making it clear where the sides would stand when negotiations played out. So far none of those bills is complete. The House has passed three while the Senate stands at zero. With their victory last week, Democrats have said they will rewrite a number of bills when Congress convenes in January. Nonetheless, Congressman Nick LaLota, a New York Republican re-elected last week, told Newsmax on Wednesday that House lawmakers believe they may be able to get a few spending bills signed into law before Congress adjourns. Among the unlikeliest to pass is annual defense appropriations, set at $1.15 billion before a special request from Mr. Trump for an additional $350 billion. While a continuing resolution is still in the cards for short-term relief for most of the budget, Democratic lawmakers have let it be known that they have no intention of passing the defense appropriations bill as written, though they may be amenable to a short-term measure until they take over.Congressman Ro Khanna of California and the Democratic lead on the Appropriations Committee, Senator Patty Murray, have said that any stopgap measure between now and the next session will be conditioned on a ban on spending for the war in Iran. The continuing resolution currently funding the Pentagon at last year’s $840 billion budget already has a ban on munitions development. That has Republican lawmakers looking at a third budget reconciliation bill, which includes a healthy chunk of funding for the Defense Department. A reconciliation bill is a difficult lift despite its features limiting debate and requiring only 51 votes to pass because it has to address only spending and tax issues, not other add-ons.Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he thought reconciliation may be a tough slog, in particular because Democrats will have the ability to slow the process by adding amendments. “I think we’ve got to keep it realistic to probably have any chance of passing,” Mr. Thune said. That comment earned heated responses from several Republican lawmakers, including Freedom Caucus member Congressman Andy Harris. “I say to Leader Thune, suck it up. That’s the legislative process. The legislative process on reconciliation is not easy, it is difficult; but it is exceedingly important.” Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, never one lost for a turn of phrase, also said reconciliation can pass with just Republican votes if it stays focused and provides at least $200 billion for our military. If we don’t do it now, it’s not going to get done,” Mr. Kennedy said, adding, “A smart man washes his hands after he urinates. A wise man doesn’t urinate on his hands. … The only way we stop urinating on our hands is through reconciliation.”The Cato Institute, meanwhile, is warning against financing any rush to spending with new borrowing. In a blog post, Cato cautioned that a debt-limit hike to pay for defense and nondefense spending increases, supplemental Iran-war funding, or other programs risks worsening America’s fiscal trajectory. The post noted that increasing the debt limit by $5 trillion would add to the $40.5 trillion in debt the United States already owes and would mean the Republican-led Congress added $10 trillion in borrowing in just two years. The institute urged Congress to pair any reconciliation bill with “sufficient savings to cut deficits in half in the near term.”Already the effort to expedite passage of stalled legislation has irked Democrats who say House Republicans are playing dirty pool to get through its priorities. On Wednesday, the House quickly passed a veterans benefits package that had been held up for months. That occurred while the Democratic lead for the bill, Mark Takano, was away from the podium, allowing the Republican lawmaker presiding over the chamber to quickly call for a voice vote that was gaveled as passed. Congressman Mike Kelly called the bill a “major win” for America’s veterans on Veterans Day, but it still may not become law after it stalled in the Senate in September over objections from Democrats.Joseph Curl contributed to this report.

Big Agenda, Big Battles Ahead as GOP Vows To ‘Maximize’ Final Weeks of Power

Big Agenda, Big Battles Ahead as GOP Vows To ‘Maximize’ Final Weeks of Power

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