House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) receives a standing ovation after being re-elected as Speaker of the House on the first day of the 119th Congress on January 3, 2025, in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, DC. |Photo Credit: Getty Images via AFP
The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Sunday (January 5, 2025) announced a “forced move” to get a multitrillion-dollar bill dealing with immigration, tax cuts and more to Donald Trump’s desk by April, within his first 100 days. He said he was pushing a deadline. Number of days in office.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and congressional Republicans are eager to help enact the president-elect’s campaign promises, including unprecedented border security spending, business deregulation, increased energy production and raising the U.S. debt ceiling. .
But with a new, razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives and an equally slim margin in the Senate, Democratic opposition could block this effort.
Johnson said he had strategized with Trump about combining several priorities into one giant bill that could pass Congress under so-called reconciliation rules.
Such tools allow budget bills to pass the 100-member Senate with a simple majority, rather than the usual 60-vote threshold.
“We can pull it all together and one big yes or no vote can literally save the country, because there are so many components to it,” Johnson told Fox News. spoke.
“That’s why we’re going to be very aggressive in solving this problem in the first 100 days,” he said.
Mr Johnson said he was aiming for a first House vote on the bill as early as April 3, then it would pass the Senate and be signed into law by the end of the month. .
Johnson said the bill would include funding for U.S.-Mexico border security and deportation of illegal immigrants.
Trump has focused much of his 2024 presidential campaign on immigration, saying he could use the military to deport millions of people after winning in November.
President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Sunday night, saying, “Lawmakers are beginning work on powerful legislation to take our country back and make it greater than ever.”
Johnson also said the giant bill would “restore America’s energy advantage,” extend tax cuts enacted during President Trump’s first term, and abolish the bureaucracy that “has strangled free markets.” He said that.
He also promised to include provisions that would expand U.S. borrowing authority.
The United States routinely faces legal constraints on paying bills it has already incurred, and Congress is being asked to formally raise or suspend the so-called debt ceiling.
The suspension of the debt ceiling that lawmakers achieved in 2023 will then end, and the country is expected to take up the issue again this year, possibly by June.
During budget negotiations in Congress in December, President Trump unsuccessfully advocated raising the debt ceiling or eliminating it altogether.
Speaking on Fox, Mr Johnson defended the apparent contradiction between wanting to raise the government borrowing limit while boasting that he would aim to reduce the deficit.
“We’re a team that wants to cut spending,” he said. “But we need to raise the debt ceiling on paper so as not to spook the bond markets and the global economy.”
Meanwhile, Trump called for even larger tax cuts, repeating his campaign promise to eliminate the tip tax.
issued – January 6, 2025 10:41am IST
