Trump Meets With Senate Republicans to Push Legislative Priorities

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday met with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill to unite the party behind his legislative agenda.

Trump held private meetings with GOP senators to discuss a strategy to tackle the party’s priorities, which include border security, tax cuts, and a reduction in government spending.

“We’re going to govern by common sense,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday evening.

The president-elect will be entering his second term in the White House from a position of strength, with both chambers of the new Congress controlled by Republicans.

As the majorities in both chambers are slim, GOP lawmakers must be on the same page and can’t afford defections.

Republicans have yet to agree on whether to pursue one bill package or two for the legislative priorities, and also hold different opinions about what the legislation should contain.

Some Senate Republicans believe that the best way is to break Trump’s agenda into two bills, which would allow them to first tackle border and energy policies before taxes, a policy issue considered more complex.

Other House Republicans, however, believe that such a strategy would risk failing to pass a second bill to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.

Trump initially said that he wanted a single package that tackles his priorities. But the president-elect on Wednesday night left the door open to accepting two.

“We’re looking at the one bill versus two bills and whatever it is, it doesn’t matter,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to get the result and we’re going to Make America Great Again, and we’ll see you in a little while.”

Last week, Trump intervened when Mike Johnson fell short of being reelected as House Speaker, helping to sway the votes of two hardline Republicans.

“None of this happens without White House leadership. The margins are simply too thin,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters. “President Trump gets MVP status for solving the speaker vote. And we’re going to need him to play MVP on getting these bills done. Just common sense.”

Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers are relying on the budget reconciliation process, a complicated legislative tool, to achieve Trump’s agenda.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) criticized the GOP strategy, saying it was out of touch with the needs of working Americans.

“Republicans are getting ready to use the reconciliation process to reward the richest Americans,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Earlier in the evening, Trump paid tribute to the late President Jimmy Carter lying in state in the Rotunda, along with his wife Melania.

On Friday, the president-elect will kick off three days of meetings with House Republicans at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

From NTD News