On Wednesday, President Donald Trump confirmed that he is more supportive of Republican plans in the House of Representatives to pass a single comprehensive bill that includes most of his agenda, rather than pursuing several separate bills like the Senate GOP wanted to do.
According to the Daily Caller, Republicans in the two houses of Congress had been battling for weeks over how to carry out the president’s ambitious agenda. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) had planned to incorporate many key elements into a single bill that could garner broad support within the party, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) had intended to split the agenda into several pieces of legislation. President Trump largely avoided the debate and opted to let lawmakers settle the matter themselves, before finally intervening with a Truth Social post.
“The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM, however, unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it,” said President Trump on Wednesday morning. “We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to “kickstart” the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.’ It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The latest development in the legislative debate comes ahead of Congress’ deadline to pass a budget resolution. The Senate had voted on Tuesday to pass its own budget bill, which now faces additional complications due to President Trump taking the House’s side. The Senate bill, among other things, did not include an extension of the 2017 tax cut law, nor did it feature additional tax-related promises that the president made on the campaign trail, including the elimination of taxes on tips, taxes on Social Security, and taxes on overtime pay.
On February 13th, the House Budget Committee passed its own budget resolution that laid the groundwork for what has been described as “one big, beautiful bill,” which would include tax policy, border security, and other major goals of the Trump Administration. The House resolution would set a new ceiling of $4.5 trillion in deficit increases, with a floor of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, and a hike of $4 trillion in the statutory debt limit.
Although much of President Trump’s agenda is concentrated primarily in the executive branch – including immigration, foreign policy, and tariffs – one of the major policies of the 45th and 47th president that requires legislation is his proposed tax reform. Thus far, the only major piece of legislation that Congress has successfully passed and sent to President Trump for his signature is the Laken Riley Act, signed into law in late January.