WASHINGTON – U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday his “intent” is to address the country’s debt limit through the reconciliation process, brushing aside the possibility of negotiating a bipartisan compromise with Democrats.
Republicans plan to rely on the complicated budget reconciliation process to pass sweeping changes to immigration and border security and tax policy, as it allows lawmakers to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster.
“This is about regulating the debt limit in compensation. And that way, as a Republican Party that has jurisdiction over both chambers, we can determine the details of that,” Johnson said. “If regular order is followed…then both parties must negotiate. And we feel like we can do it better ourselves.”
President-elect Donald Trump called on Republicans in December to eliminate the country’s debt limit entirely, or at least suspend it until the end of his four-year term.
House Republican leaders included a two-year suspension of the debt limit in a short-term spending bill passed in December, but lifted it after failing to secure votes to pass the amended version of the bill to obtain.
Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago On Tuesday in Florida, he said his view on the debt limit was primarily that he didn’t want a default.
“What I want in terms of the debt ceiling is not the ceiling, I just don’t want to see a default. That’s all I want,” Trump said. “I never talked about necessarily spending more money. All I want to see is no default, because no one knows what would happen if there was a default – it could be 1929 and it could be nothing.”
The previous debt limit suspension negotiated between House Republicans and the Biden administration expired on January 1, but Congress should have several months to negotiate a recent debt limit bill before the country defaults becomes.
During this window, the Treasury will carry out accounting maneuvers known as extraordinary measures to continue paying all of the country’s bills in full and on time. Should Congress fail to pass a debt limitation bill before this so-called
Adding the debt limit to reconciliation will force Republicans to complete their work on the entire package before the default date is reached.
The Treasury secretary typically informs Congress regularly about when a default is likely and revises his forecasts as the country gets closer to the final date. The first of these letters could arrive before the end of January.
Building a GOP consensus on the debt limit
Johnson said during the press conference On Tuesday, he said he does not intend to allow a default under unified Republican control of the government, but acknowledged that there are several different views on the debt limit within the Republican Party.
Traditionally, Republicans have used debt limit negotiations during divided government as leverage to make gains in policy areas, such as government spending, that they otherwise would not have prioritized. But they don’t tend to do that when they control the House, Senate and White House.
“There is a wide range of views on this at our own conference and we are working on it,” Johnson said. “We will have very targeted, long whiteboard sessions with our members.”
Johnson, R-La., said these negotiations will take a lot of time from him and the House leadership team in the coming weeks “to make sure everyone is on the same page.”
Johnson also tried to differentiate raising or suspending the debt limit from Republicans’ goal of long-term government spending reductions and efforts to shrink the size of the federal government.
“I want to emphasize this and will say it every time the issue comes up – the Republicans in this majority, in the House and in the Senate, our intent and our mission is to reduce the size and scope of government “Spend in a sensible way so we can restore financial sanity,” Johnson said. “Raising the debt limit is a necessary step so that we do not appear to be in any way defaulting on the country’s debts. This is vital for the bond markets and the stability of the dollar and everything else.
“But that doesn’t mean we have any intention or will tolerate spending up to the new debt limit. The idea is to do the exact opposite.”
Spending cuts
Johnson said Republicans would explore numerous options to cut government spending, but he did not expect cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits, which are about $2.2 trillion a year a third of all federal spending.
“We must carefully consider all spending while honoring our commitments,” Johnson said. “The Republican Party is not going to cut benefits, okay? We have made this clear time and time again. And that is the commitment of the White House and this Republican Conference.”
But he said the GOP would take a close look at federal departments and agencies in the coming months to find ways to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.”
“As the process progresses, all of this will be very consciously examined in various aspects,” Johnson said. “The DOGE initiative, the project, is running at the same time and we will dovetail it all together.
“So our intention is, by the end of this Congress, to demonstrate to the American people that we have restored government to measurable condition.”
Trump said during his press conference at Mar-a-Lago that he would be fine with Republicans pushing through all of their policy goals in a single reconciliation package, but that two bills would also work for him.
“I like a big, beautiful bill and I always have, I always will,” Trump said. “But if two are safer, it goes a little quicker because you can get the immigration stuff done sooner.”
There has been some debate between Republicans in the House and Senate about whether to put everything together in a reconciliation package or pass a border security and immigration bill first before working on a second package on tax policy.
Timeline
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said during the press conference on Capitol Hill that GOP leaders hope to vote in February on the budget resolution that will start the reconciliation process.
The numerous committees that will receive reconciliation instructions once the House and Senate agree to pass the budget resolution would begin work on their various bills in March, Scalise said.
The full House would then debate and vote on the entire package in April before Easter and send it to the Senate, as long as Republicans can negotiate a deal supported by centrist and far-right members of the party.
“It’s an ambitious agenda, but it’s an agenda that we’re all committed to,” Scalise said.
The GOP in the House of Representatives has an extremely narrow majority with just 219 representatives, while the Democrats hold 215 seats. If all members are present and vote on a particular bill, House GOP leaders need 218 votes to send the measure to the Senate.
There is currently one vacancy due to former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz choosing not to take the oath of office This special election will not take place until April 1st. More vacancies are likely to emerge in the coming months as at least two more House Republicans are expected to leave for posts in the Trump administration.
Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate and may lose the support of three lawmakers for a reconciliation package, but four or more opponents of the bill would end the process.
Reconciliation packages must also comply with the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which requires that any provisions of the package have an impact on revenue or spending that is not “merely incidental,” as determined by the Senate parliamentarian.
Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report.
Last updated on January 7, 2025 at 2:23 p.m
