SO MUCH TO RECONCILE After some mild drama Friday, Mike Johnson is set to lead House Republicans this Congress. Now comes the real challenge: enacting the GOP agenda. Johnson, his fellow GOP leaders and House committee chairmen are set to kick off that work in earnest tomorrow — hosting an off-campus member retreat to map out their ambitious legislative plans, with a special emphasis on setting the budgetary and policy parameters for their planned energy, border and tax reconciliation package. And if the speaker’s race is any sign of what’s to come, none of it is going to be easy for Johnson. But his first-ballot victory (extended though it might have been) has Republicans optimistic that their conference’s many divides will ultimately get bridged. “[It] is obviously a sign that, although progress isn't always in a straight line, in this town the Republican House has been able to deliver,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.). “It's going to be a messy process, but almost every member of the Republican Conference wants to accomplish the same things.” What’s next: At tomorrow’s retreat, to be held at Fort McNair in Southwest Washington, leaders hope to make progress on the “topline” reconciliation instructions necessary to kick off the process. Those parameters set the dollar amount of budgetary changes that each congressional committee is permitted to make within their jurisdictions. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said he expects Republican leadership to abide by the agreement, hashed out during the government funding debate in December, to cut $2.5 trillion in spending within the reconciliation process. “That should be pretty easily achievable,” Harris said. Chairs of key committees are expected to make presentations at the retreat explaining what they’d like to see in reconciliation legislation. One big challenge is that leadership still hasn’t determined whether to pursue one reconciliation package this Congress or two — a point of contention between Senate leaders and some in the House. Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) is expected to make the case tomorrow for a one-bill approach, members said. Senate leaders and key advisers to President-elect Donald Trump favor two bills. Zoom out: Johnson did get one encouraging sign Friday — about the power of Trump to bring some of the most fractious Republicans in line. After Trump delivered Johnson a public endorsement earlier this week, he played a late and ultimately decisive role in personally convincing two final holdouts — Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Keith Self (R-Texas) — to back Johnson on Friday. Notably, Johnson said he didn’t cut any side deals to win the gavel. That could give him flexibility to maneuver — as much as might be possible in a two-seat majority — as he pivots to the reconciliation plan. Still, even with Trump looming over the process, Republicans aren’t playing down just how difficult it will be to garner near-unanimity in their ranks for such a sprawling agenda. (For reference, 12 Republicans broke ranks on the last GOP reconciliation bill, 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.) “It’s going to be a challenge, it’s going to be tough, it’s not going to be easy,” Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said. — Daniella Diaz and Benjamin Guggenheim GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Friday, Jan. 3, where it turns out you can get a Republican speaker on the first ballot. WHAT THE FREEDOM CAUCUS WANTS Moments after Johnson became speaker, 11 members of the House Freedom Caucus released a letter laying out, curiously, a list of concessions “we believe the Speaker should have committed to.” Johnson made no actual commitments to secure the gavel, he insisted to reporters Friday, but the litany of demands from the GOP’s hard-right faction is worth parsing anyway — if nothing else, as an accounting of the many tripwires Johnson will face in the 119th Congress. Let’s break down the HFC’s asks — and how likely they are to be fulfilled:
- Beef up the House calendar: Demanding that the House “work at least as hard as the Senate,” the 11 lawmakers want Johnson to match Senate Majority Leader John Thune by staying in session five days a week and skipping planned recesses in January and February. The forecast: Don’t count on it, since members treasure their long weekends and floor time is less relevant in the House, which doesn’t have to process presidential nominations.
- Focus on spending: The erstwhile holdouts want any GOP reconciliation bill to reduce “the deficit in real terms with respect to the dynamic score of tax and spending policies under recent growth trends” — meaning any revenue lost through tax cuts needs to be offset with spending cuts. The forecast: More likely than not, especially since the HFCers inserted plenty of wiggle room with their allowance for dynamic scoring.
- Better appropriations process: After yet another continuing resolution passed under suspension of the rules with mostly Democratic votes, no surprise to see the ultra-conservative bloc insist on no more bills that “rely heavily on Democrat support for passage, or that are often not supported by a majority of Republicans.” The forecast: Cloudy at best. The Senate filibuster is law of the land for the foreseeable future, which means there will have to be bipartisanship in appropriations.
- Better bills on the floor: The letter lays out a laundry list of legislative priorities for Johnson, including border security legislation, deficit reduction, reversing Biden administration policies like student loan forgiveness and electric vehicle subsidies, expanding health savings accounts, requiring voter ID and banning congressional stock trading. The forecast: Pretty sunny. One thing the House will have plenty of time to do while the Senate works through nominations and reconciliation is take up messaging bills. (Though we’ll note: The stock trading ban might prove difficult.)
— Nicholas Wu and Daniella Diaz SCOOP: GOP’S JAN. 6 TALKS Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) told Inside Congress on Friday that he’s pitched Speaker Mike Johnson on creating a select committee to continue his investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, the previous select committee that investigated it and Capitol security more generally. As you might remember: We first reported last year that Loudermilk wanted a select committee but hadn’t yet spoken to Johnson about the idea amid the year-end spending drama. Loudermilk told us Friday the two have now talked, with an outcome yet to be “fully determined.” “I think the plan is to get beyond today, get beyond Monday and then we can have some serious discussions,” Loudermilk told us. “The discussion is still active.” Besides creating a new select committee, Loudermilk floated Johnson possibly appointing a task force, akin to the one that investigated assassination attempts on Trump last year, or a select subcommittee. He made clear, however, that he believes a full select committee is preferable. “It gives us subpoena authority,” he added. “It’s grown beyond the subcommittee level.” Meanwhile, Johnson tweeted on X on Thursday night that the investigation would continue and “it will be FULLY FUNDED so it can continue next Congress.” — Jordain Carney
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