WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump huddled behind closed doors with Republican congressional leaders for more than five hours at the White House on Thursday to work out a path to push his legislative agenda on the border, energy and taxes through the fully GOP-controlled House and Senate. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Donald Trump is huddling behind closed doors with Republican Congressional leaders at the White House on Thursday to work out a path to push his legislative agenda on the border, energy and taxes through the fully GOP-controlled House and Senate
  • White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president was set to lay out for the GOP leaders his priorities on tax cuts in his second administration
  • It comes as South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, declared on Wednesday that his committee would push forward with legislation that includes Trump’s border, energy and defense priorities next week, even though the House typically moves first on such matters
  • Despite Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., telling reporters at the capitol that his chamber was in a “good place” on Trump’s legislative agenda as recently as Thursday morning ahead of the meeting, the House, at least outwardly, doesn’t appear to have made much progress on legislation

Lawmakers present for the meeting, including GOP Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Mike Lawler of New York, returned to the Hill in the afternoon pledging to reporters that “progress” had been made and they are “working through it.” 

“I think we’re making progress but we’ve got more work to do,” Bacon said, adding “at times” when asked if the meeting was tense. 

Despite Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., telling reporters at the Capitol that his chamber was in a “good place” on a plan for Trump’s legislative agenda as recently as Thursday morning ahead of the meeting, the House, at least outwardly, didn’t appear to have made much headway over the last few weeks. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House earlier in the day that the president was set to lay out for lawmakers his priorities on taxes in his second administration, which she said include ending taxes on tips, Social Security benefits for seniors and overtime pay, adjusting the federal deduction for state and local taxes, eliminating special tax breaks for “billionaire sports team owners,” closing the carried interest tax loophole, enacting tax breaks for products made in the U.S., and renewing his 2017 tax cuts.

“This will be the largest tax cut in history for middle class working Americans,” she asserted, adding Trump is “committed” to working with lawmakers to get the tax priorities across the finish line.  

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol in the afternoon, House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, praised the president for how he “framed the meeting.” 

“He set the tone for us to push through some things that we were stuck on, quite frankly,” Arrington said. “It was so helpful to have him make some introductory comments and frame the meeting and then he just put it back on us to work through the details.”

Arrington declined to say what those details are, citing being “so close” to an agreement and not wanting to “screw this up.” 

He added that he “anticipates” the House will begin to mark up legislation next week. 

Republican lawmakers are looking to move Trump’s agenda through Congress via a process called reconciliation, which allows a bill to avoid the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate and move forward with just a simple majority. The GOP holds a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber. 

But it comes as his equivalent in the upper chamber, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, declared Wednesday that he was not waiting for the House, which typically takes the lead on such budget matters, to move first. Graham said his committee is already set to push forward with legislation that includes Trump’s border, energy and defense priorities next week.

In a press release, Graham described his imminent legislation as a “blueprint that unlocks the pathway forward for a fully paid-for reconciliation bill to secure the border, bolster our military and increase American energy independence.”

“This will be the most transformational border security bill in the history of our country,” he said. 

Such an approach would likely mean Republicans on Capitol Hill would pursue a second bill to fulfill Trump’s wishes on taxes separately — a method Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has long said he favored.

Johnson, however, has made clear he prefers moving forward with a single bill that combines border, energy, defense and tax priorities as he manages an ultra-narrow and often divided majority in the lower chamber. 

“We’re working on a one-bill strategy,” Johnson reiterated at the Capitol on Thursday. 

Arrington stressed after the meeting that “the president has been clear in his support for one comprehensive bill that has the security piece and the economic piece, both tax, energy and spending reforms.”

He stopped short of commenting on Graham and the announcement of the senator’s legislative plan when asked by reporters. 

While previously saying he would likely prefer it all to be rolled into one “big, beautiful bill,” publicly, Trump has insisted it doesn’t matter to him how congressional Republicans pass his agenda as long as they get it all over the finish line and quickly. 

Johnson has pegged April as the month he hopes to have a bill on the president’s desk and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News they’re aiming for $1 trillion in spending cuts. 

The government is also set to run out of funding and potentially shut down without congressional action in March.