Johnson Says This Could Be the ‘Most Consequential Congress’ of Modern Times

Lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill Tuesday as Washington prepares for a major shift in power following Republicans’ apparent clean sweep of the White House and congressional control in last week's elections. President-elect Donald Trump’s stunning return to the White House is already influencing the political dynamics, even as the 118th Congress attempts to wrap up its final business during the post-election lame-duck session, with a to-do list that includes funding the government ahead of a December 20 deadline, providing additional disaster relief aid and, in the Senate, confirming a slew of federal judges.

Standing on the steps of the Capitol with his leadership team, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday morning that he has not yet settled on a strategy for the upcoming government funding deadline. Some Republican lawmakers are calling for a short-term bill that pushes the deadline into March, while others, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, want to pass a bill that covers the rest of the fiscal year, ensuring that the potentially contentious issue does not cloud the first weeks of Trump’s second term in office, when Republicans want to focus on enacting the incoming president’s agenda.

Johnson said he “can make a case for a number of different options that are on the table,” but he wants to hear from Trump before deciding. “The president's preference on that will carry a lot of weight obviously,” he said, referring to the president-elect.
The preferred approach could emerge in the next week following planned consultations with Trump, both on Wednesday in Washington and over the weekend in Florida. “My plan is to be at Mar-a-Lago all weekend to iron out details on the plans ahead,” Johson said.

Senate Democrats will also have some say on the funding plan, with Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer reportedly unlikely to agree to a clean stopgap measure while he still has leverage over the legislation. Schumer and Democrats may press for extra disaster relief funding or other concessions if Republicans look to pass a short-term spending extension, or they may push for a full-year spending deal.

More broadly, Johnson signaled that the Republican leadership aims to start working on the Trump agenda as quickly as possible once the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2025. “We are ready to deliver on America’s mandate,” Johnson said. “We will be ready day one. We are prepared this time.”

Saying that Republicans plan “to raise an ‘America First’ banner above this place,” Johnson also made it clear that he sees the upcoming legislative effort in fairly dramatic terms. “I told President Trump many times, as we’ve all discussed, we believe we could be the most consequential Congress in the modern era, and he the most consequential president, because we quite literally have to fix almost every metric of public policy,” he said. “Everything is a mess. Everything.”