Republican senators say they want to convince President Trump to support their plan to take the lead on a budget reconciliation package when they meet with him at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.
Republican senators say getting Trump to pick a side in the standoff between Senate and House Republicans over which chamber should move first on the president’s legislative agenda is one of several topics they hope to discuss at a two-hour dinner reception scheduled for Friday evening.
“In the end it will take presidential leadership. It will take him twisting arms. He might have to twist them hard,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), referring to what many GOP senators see as Trump’s need to crack down on House Republicans who are holding up the process.
A Republican senator who will be at the meeting with Trump on Friday said it would be “helpful” if Trump urges House Republicans to back a Senate Republican plan to break up his legislative agenda into two packages and move quickly on a bill focused on border security, energy reform and defense.
“There’s still differing opinions and no single clear option as to one bill, two bills, three bills for reconciliation. We need to talk about spending levels generally, plan for debt ceiling,” the lawmaker said.
Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) plans to mark up a budget resolution next week that would allow the Senate to move forward on a reconciliation package that would include hundreds of billions of dollars in spending for border security and defense.
House Republicans emerged from a White House meeting on Thursday signaling they wanted to head the Senate off.
“Our message to our friends and colleagues in the Senate is, allow the House to do its work,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters after the marathon meeting with Trump. “We are moving this as quickly and as expeditiously as possible.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told his colleagues at a meeting Wednesday that he hasn’t received a guarantee that the House would take up and pass any budget resolution first passed by the Senate.
Republicans plan to move Trump’s agenda under a special process known as budget reconciliation to enable them to circumvent a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. But for that to happen, both chambers would need to pass a joint budget resolution.
House Republicans could block the reconciliation instructions from going to Senate committees by declining to adopt a Senate-passed budget resolution.
GOP senators say they also want Trump to tell them more about his controversial proposal for the United States to take charge of rebuilding Gaza and to explain how much longer he intends to pause federal spending in an array of areas, including foreign aid and assistance.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty. People are wondering what’s happening,” said a second Republican senator who plans to attend the dinner with Trump.
GOP senators have raised concerns about a variety of issues related to Elon Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency, including a pause on infrastructure projects authorized and funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and foreign assistance, which has left more than $340 million in domestically grown food stuck at U.S. ports.
“Things are said and then repealed. It’s a lot of uncertainty,” the senator added, referring to a memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget that froze a broad swath of federal spending but was repealed within days after pushback from Capitol Hill.
Republican senators felt blindsided by Trump’s proposal for the United States to take the lead in rebuilding Gaza, resettle the 1.8 million Palestinians living there and send U.S. troops to the region if “necessary.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called it “a really dumb idea,” and Graham, a close Trump ally, called the proposed removal of Palestinians “very problematic.”
Senators want to hear from Trump about the international reaction to his proposal, particularly from allies such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Dressing up
Senate Republicans will get an extended opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback about the barrage of executive orders, actions and proposals that have rocked Washington’s political landscape since Trump’s inauguration.
Male senators have been asked to wear suits to the event, which the lawmakers say they expect to be an upscale affair, according to a lawmaker familiar with the details of the invitation. Female senators haven’t been provided with a dress code but are expected to dress up for the occasion.
Senate Republicans are staying at The Breakers, a top-notch hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., where they will be picked up by bus to be transported to Mar-a-Lago for dinner.
Republican senators say they want Trump to intervene in the dispute between Senate and House GOP leaders over the best strategy for moving his legislative agenda.
Thune has called for breaking up Trump’s agenda into two reconciliation bills, one focused on border security, energy reform and defense spending and a second one focused on extending the 2017 tax cuts.
The Speaker has instead proposed combining all those elements into one big package, reasoning that it will be easier to get his razor-thin House GOP majority to pass it if it includes more of Trump’s priorities.
So far, Trump has endorsed Johnson’s plan to move the main components of his legislative agenda in “one big, beautiful bill,” but Republican senators are running out of patience in the face of a stalemate among House Republicans, which forced them to delay a markup of their budget resolution.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said senators are losing patience with the lack of action on a budget resolution.
He said there’s a “consensus” within the Senate GOP conference that they need to move more quickly on Trump’s legislative priorities.
“Some of us are getting anxious to keep moving forward,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).
That was echoed by another Republican senator who said, “My strong opinion is it’s time to get moving.”
“You got to be able to steer the bus, and when it’s parked, you can’t steer it. It’s time to move,” the source said.
GOP senators want to get a budget reconciliation package with border security, energy and defense spending on the Senate floor by mid-March.
In 2017, Republicans were well down the path of putting together a budget reconciliation package at this point on the calendar in Trump’s first term.
