Congress’s first gift to Trump could be legislative ‘kitchen sink’

As Trump moves to implement his many campaign promises, some lawmakers hope to bundle a litany of conservative agenda items in a sort of “kitchen sink” legislative package early in his term.

“We don't have a lot of wiggle room. That's why we have to get everybody on board with everything,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show. “You’ve got to remember, we can only afford to lose one person in the House. You know, we can only afford to lose, what about four people in the U.S. Senate? So we've got to get everything that we need to make America great again in that first big bill that is going to be passed in, presumably, February or March.”

The Trump White House and Congress have been negotiating over their approach to key legislative priorities, notably the pairing of immigration and border security with extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts. While the Senate and White House appear on the same page with a two-step approach of passing separate legislation, House conservatives on key committees have called for a single mega-bill, citing concerns that the administration could chicken out on immigration if the bill does not include it.

House conservatives prioritize border security

“It's important that the Trump administration does not cave in to the more weak-kneed open borders Republicans who say, ‘Well, you know, why don't you kick out the murderers and the rapists, but otherwise we can let the 10 million people stay here,’” Grothman added. “No, no, no. We have to remove a clear majority of the people who snuck in here during the four years.”

Grothman is not alone in that sentiment. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a key member of the House Rules Committee, said Tuesday on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show that Congress ought to prioritize the border efforts “because I think the American people are going to demand it, and that has got to be done early on.”

“Now it's got to be handled,” he added. “And I think the tax cuts that Trump did a great job on, we take that up in the second reconciliation. But you'd handle first things first, and that's one of them that's leading the pack. And it would be, I think, Well, I would say easy to pass, but in Congress, I don't think anything's easy.”

Trump advisors tout tax cuts

Senior Trump advisor Jason Miller on the same program offered the incoming White House’s perspective, saying “the big thing… are ultimately the tax cuts.”

“We have to get the tax cuts reauthorized, those Trump tax cuts from the end of 2017,” he said. “But not only that, we have some additional promises that we need to make good on: no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime pay for people who make their products here in the U.S. Take that corporate rate from 21 down to 15. So a lot of additional things put together.”

Of the split between the one and two bill approach, Miller said Congress and the Trump administration were “working through” those disputes. Apart from Grothman and Norman, other key lawmakers, such as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, have expressed concerns over splitting the administration’s priorities into two bills.

“Running the plays”

Statements from incoming White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, an immigration hawk, could potentially assuage concerned Republicans such as Grothman. During a recent appearance on Fox News' “Hannity”, he stated that “[y]ou're going to see the border sealed shut. The criminal aliens are going to be shipped home. Foreign countries around the world are going to accept the gang members and the cartel members that are poisoning our families and murdering American children.”

He also stated that the administration would work with Congress and appeared to downplay disputes over strategy as a discussion on the “sequence of how we’re running those plays.”

But for some lawmakers, the debate is more than a matter of tax cuts and immigration reforms and they hope to include more priorities in a mega-bill on top of those.

“Obviously, the border is number one and President Trump may need some more money there,” Grothman said. “Do we have to have a permanent reduction in spending? Because in order to get inflation under control, we have to stop printing all this money.”

“I would like something done in the welfare situation,” he added. “We have a situation in this country in which we're bribing people $20-$25,000 a year, not to get married, not to have the father in the home. That has long been a goal of the left.”

Frustrations with leadership

Republicans are poised to enjoy the majority in the lower chamber when the new Congress convenes, albeit a narrow one until special elections replace lawmakers whom Trump tapped to serve in his administration.

That narrow margin is likely to leave Republicans little “wiggle room” as Grothman pointed out, and potentially hamstring House Speaker Mike Johnson, who already faces discontent within his conference over his handling of budget matters.

“Everything has consequences. And I think the frustration level is – we all like him as a person, but leaders have to make tough decisions, and this is a tough decision, but it really shouldn't be,” Norman added, referencing an ongoing dispute in the House over an unrelated stopgap spending bill. “You know, we've got the gavel. We've got the majority. Now, granted it’s one or two.”