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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump met behind closed doors Wednesday evening to plot how to enact sweeping changes to immigration, energy and tax policy, though they didn’t appear to make significant progress.

Republicans want to use the complicated budget reconciliation process to approve legislation without relying on Democrats for votes in the Senate, where a 60-vote legislative filibuster typically forces bipartisanship. But the GOP has yet to agree on whether their proposals should move in one large package or two bills, a necessary decision to begin the multistep undertaking. 

Leaders also haven’t figured out exactly what changes to make, an endeavor that will likely require months of talks between centrist and far-right members of the party, nearly all of whom need to support the final version if it’s going to get through Congress.

Trump said after the meeting there is “great unity” among Republicans, despite strong differences of opinion between the House and Senate about whether to try to pass all of the policies in one bill or break them up into two packages.

“Whether it’s one bill or two bills, it’s going to get done one way or another. I think there’s a lot of talk about two and there’s a lot of talk about one, but it doesn’t matter. The end result is the same,” Trump said. “We’re going to get something done that’s going to be reducing taxes and creating a lot of jobs and all of the other things that you know about.”

One bill or two?

GOP senators leaving the two-hour meeting that was held inside the Capitol said no final decisions were made, but that GOP leaders will keep talking.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said lawmakers in that chamber were “united on (Trump’s) agenda, which is securing the border, rebuilding the military, creating energy dominance for this country, strengthening the economy … and avoiding and preventing a huge tax increase if we don’t act to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts.”

Thune declined to say whether GOP senators were able to convince Trump to support their two-bill strategy.

“We’re all in line with getting the result and the process arguments that we have around here are certainly less important, certainly, to people across the country than accomplishing the things I just mentioned,” Thune said.

But, he said, there is “a lot of interest” among Senate Republicans in seeing legislation addressing the border, national security and energy move quickly.

“It’s an ongoing conversation, but in the end we all want the same result and that’s what we’re going to be focused on,” Thune said.

Budget resolution needed

The budget reconciliation process requires the House and Senate to adopt a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions before they can bring the actual reconciliation bill to the floor.

That means House and Senate GOP leaders will need to agree sooner or later on which committees get reconciliation instructions and what those instructions say.

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said no final decisions were made during the meeting, but that GOP senators made their case to Trump for moving the policy changes in two different bills.

“He heard from us and from our leader that a two-bill strategy is very much alive over here and something we’re still very interested in,” she said.

Capito, who moderated the conversation and ran the meeting, said she was able to “get the president’s ear” at a few points to discuss policy, but didn’t detail what exactly she might have pressed him for.

Capito said she expected Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to get together at some point with Trump to make a final decision on one or two bills.

A ‘fun’ meeting

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt said the border and energy are two of the top policy priorities, though he didn’t get into the weeds on what exactly would change on those two topics.

Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said that the meeting with Trump was “fun” and that Republicans had the opportunity to ask the incoming president questions.

“There’s so much energy,” she said, adding that her preference for handling reconciliation would be two bills rather than one.

Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who was the lead Republican on the bipartisan border security bill deal that Trump  in 2024, said that during the meeting Trump expressed his intent for the White House to work closely with Congress.

Lankford added that Trump was “really open” to various strategies on reconciliation.

“I think (with) two bills, you get things done faster,” he said. “And we can start moving quicker, rather than waiting till May or June to try to get something done.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said that GOP senators are leaning towards two reconciliation bills, “but at the same time, Leader Thune made it very clear that he’s going to do what the president wants us to do.”

Last updated 9:18 p.m., Jan. 8, 2025