WASHINGTON – Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives said Tuesday that voters had given them a “mandate” to pass as much conservative policy as possible once they won unified control of the federal government in January, but declined to do so. to provide details about exactly what policies they would adopt.
“The American people want us to implement and implement the ‘America First’ agenda,” said spokesman Mike Johnson. “And we need to do that while we have that energy and that excitement, starting on the first day of Congress in the new year.”
The Louisiana Republican said the election results show that Americans want lawmakers to focus their attention on “secure borders” and preventing “terrorists and criminals from entering the country.”
“They want and deserve low cost groceries and gas,” Johnson said. “They want us to show strength again on the world stage and not the weakness we have projected over the last four years. They want an end to wokeness and radical gender ideology and a return to common sense in our children’s classrooms, in the boardrooms of corporations and government agencies. We will make sure everything is true.”
Not quite at 218 yet
The Associated Press, the news organization that States Newsroom relies on for racial calls decades of experiencehad not yet called the Republican House of Representatives on Tuesday, but was expected to do so in the coming days.
GOP politicians have won 214 seats so far, just shy of the minimum of 218 needed for a majority. However, they will need a few more seats to gain a comfortable lead after President-elect Donald Trump nominates some of their colleagues for posts in his next administration.
are Democrats expected to hold at least 205 seats in the House of Representatives, with 16 races still to be called by the AP. That will give Republicans a narrow majority when the next Congress begins in January, and not much wiggle room for lost votes from centrist or far-right members.
GOP lawmakers will hold 53 seats in the U.S. Senate next year after previously flipping Democratic seats in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, according to the AP.
Johnson said during the news conference on the steps of the Capitol building that he expects the GOP to have a larger majority in the next Congress than the current 220 seats.
But he warned that every Republican vote will count because the party is unlikely to have a gigantic majority.
“Every single vote will count because if someone gets sick, has a car accident or their plane is delayed, that will affect the votes cast,” Johnson said.
Republicans in Congress, he said, are coordinating closely with Trump, who is expected to meet with lawmakers at the Capitol on Wednesday before Johnson travels to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida this weekend to hammer out details of a legislative agenda with him.
“President Trump will meet with President Biden at the White House. And so it was suggested that he visit the House Republicans,” Johnson said. “So we’re working out the details of his meeting with us, possibly tomorrow morning before he goes to the White House. And that would be a great meeting and a special moment for all of us. There’s a lot of excitement and a lot of energy here.”
Details of the upcoming reforms
Unified control of government will allow Republicans to operate the complicated budget reconciliation process to pass legislation without needing the bipartisan support typically required to overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster.
Johnson said the party wants to apply this process to all policy areas that comply with the instructions, which allow lawmakers to make changes to revenue, spending or debt that are not “just incidental” as part of the $6 trillion federal budget .
“We have many very specific plans to do this and the details of this will be announced in the coming week,” he said.
Asked whether Republicans would abolish the Education Department, one of Trump’s campaign promises, Johnson said he “didn’t want to be specific about the specifics of the reforms.”
“There are many ideas on the table, but we need to work together, build consensus and work in coordination with the Trump administration on the sequence of reforms and how we implement them,” Johnson said. “That’s why I’m not prepared to give you any details about it. But you can keep at it.”
Last updated 1:48 p.m., November 12, 2024
