Johnson speaks with Trump and Thune as GOP maps out plans for agenda

 

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune arrives for a joint session of Congress to ratify the 2024 Presidential election at the US Capitol on January 6, in Washington, DC. 

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House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday before the election certification that he spoke this morning with both President-elect Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune as Republican leaders ramp up plans to carry out an ambitious agenda.

Johnson — who returned from a weekend policy session in Baltimore — vowed that Republicans would pass Trump’s policy plans, though he did not voice support for a specific strategy.

While Trump has told Republicans he wants to package all tax, border and energy plans into one bill, Thune has suggested breaking it into two bills.

“Some people like the one-bill strategy, some people like the two-bill strategy. We will work that out. I’m in dialogue this morning with Sen. Thune, and the two houses will get together and we’ll get it done,” Johnson said.

But one of Johnson’s key GOP deputies, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, insisted to CNN that the one-bill approach had already been decided.

“We can do up to three reconciliation bills. But the first one is going to have tax, energy, border, permitting and spending cuts. And that’s been decided,” Smith said.