{"id":20527,"date":"2026-03-25T08:46:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/gops-reconciliation-hopes-are-easier-dreamt-than-done\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T08:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T08:46:37","slug":"gops-reconciliation-hopes-are-easier-dreamt-than-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/gops-reconciliation-hopes-are-easier-dreamt-than-done\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP\u2019s reconciliation hopes are easier dreamt than done"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republicans are hitting the gas on a new party-line policy bill. They are fully aware it might end up in the ditch.<\/p>\n

The renewed push for budget reconciliation \u2014 spawned out of a Monday meeting<\/a> between President Donald Trump and a group of GOP senators \u2014 marks the best shot Republicans have had in months to enact key agenda items without Democratic cooperation. House and Senate conservatives have clamored for a second attempt<\/a> this Congress, following last summer\u2019s tax-cuts-focused megabill, without much success.<\/p>\n

But GOP leaders face a tall order in wrangling their thin margins and the hodgepodge of policy ideas already being pitched by their competing factions \u2014 or watching the effort collapse due to infighting.<\/p>\n

Underscoring the massive challenge, some Republicans are stressing they aren\u2019t committing to pass another bill under the reconciliation process \u2014 which could allow them to avoid a Democratic filibuster in the Senate \u2014 they are just promising to give it a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe odds would be like 100 percent,\u201d Sen. Ron Johnson<\/a> (R-Wis.) said in an interview about the chances Republicans will attempt another reconciliation bill. \u201cNow, do we pass it?\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest vision for a GOP reconciliation bill would build the legislation around new funding for immigration enforcement that Democrats are refusing to pass<\/a>, plus parts of the SAVE America Act \u2014 the Republican elections overhaul that doesn\u2019t have a path to passing the Senate. GOP lawmakers believe incentives for states to adopt new policies such as voter ID rules could comply with the Senate\u2019s strict rules for reconciliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would keep it as simple as possible so it could pass,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Thom Tillis<\/a> (R-N.C.) said in an interview that keeping the bill narrow would help raise the odds that Republicans would be able to get something across the finish line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to keep all of our members tight \u2026 we need to agree to the parameters and not allow scope creep,\u201d Tillis said.<\/p>\n

Keeping the scope of the reconciliation bill narrower would have an added political benefit for Senate Republicans \u2014 it would limit the slate of issues on which Democrats could force simple-majority votes as they try to squeeze vulnerable GOP incumbents just months before the midterms.<\/p>\n

But there is already outright skepticism, and in some cases early signs of opposition, inside the Senate GOP. Republicans can lose up to three senators and still pass a party-line bill.<\/p>\n

Sen. Susan Collins<\/a> (R-Maine), who is facing a tough reelection bid, said she thought reconciliation was not a \u201cgood approach.\u201d Sen. Rick Scott<\/a> (R-Fla.), a Budget Committee member who chairs the Republican Steering Committee, predicted it would be \u201cvery difficult\u201d to get the votes and compared it to a \u201cpipe dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know me, I\u2019m not a big fan of reconciliation,\u201d Sen. Lisa Murkowski<\/a> (R-Alaska) added when asked if she wanted to pursue a new party-line bill.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the Senate where GOP leaders are facing an uphill battle to pass both a budget resolution \u2014 a key prerequisite for reconciliation \u2014 as well as the bill itself.<\/p>\n

A big risk of pursuing a second reconciliation bill is House conservatives seeking to include potentially billions of dollars in cuts to the social safety net<\/a> and other long-brewing proposals that will “scare the hell out of” vulnerable Republican lawmakers ahead of the midterms, according to one senior House GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics.<\/p>\n

Even House GOP chatter about trying to add in extra Pentagon funding<\/a> is sparking warnings from their Senate counterparts. One GOP senator, also granted anonymity to speak candidly, predicted that a heavy injection of defense spending could \u201ckill the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several House Republicans granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics said they do not believe GOP leaders will be able to muster the multiple near-unanimous GOP votes needed to get another reconciliation bill through the House.<\/p>\n

At a leadership meeting Tuesday, senior House Republicans voiced concerns about whether adding the SAVE America Act to a reconciliation bill would be a futile exercise, according to two people in the room.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because of procedural reality: Most of the contentious elections bill won\u2019t pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, whose guidance on the reconciliation process is typically final.<\/p>\n

The House Freedom Caucus called the Senate GOP plan “gaslighting” Tuesday morning. And Sen. Mike Lee<\/a> (R-Utah) said Tuesday that it\u2019s \u201chard to imagine\u201d how it could pass under the budget process.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd by \u2018hard\u2019 I mean \u2018essentially impossible,\u2019\u201d Lee added on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republicans are discussing how they might induce states to implement some of the SAVE America Act\u2019s voter ID requirements. Senate Budget Committee Republicans met Tuesday for what senators described as a meeting to \u201ctouch gloves\u201d as members plotted how to enact ICE funding and parts of the election bill. Senate Republicans also discussed pursuing another reconciliation bill during a closed-door lunch Tuesday.<\/p>\n

House Administration Chair Bryan Steil<\/a> (R-Wis.) separately circulated a list of proposals with key GOP offices on his side of the Capitol that would mandate or financially incentivize states to implement voter ID laws, require proof of citizenship for voter registration, share voter data with federal agencies for verification and conduct post-election audits, among other items, according to a document obtained by POLITICO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of those items appeared unlikely to pass scrutiny with the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, whose rulings tend to be the final word on the reconciliation process.<\/p>\n

GOP senators could overrule her, but Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> vowed Tuesday that they would comply with her guidance. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) also batted away a question about overruling her, calling it a \u201chypothetical.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Republican leaders are otherwise being careful not to make any pronouncements about where the latest reconciliation push will end up. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise<\/a> said only that they are \u201clooking at a lot of different options to see if we’ve got a consensus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune added that he would need to be \u201cpretty sure\u201d any proposal has the requisite 50 votes before the Senate embarked on the initial and time-consuming step of approving a budget resolution, which unlocks the reconciliation process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to make sure we keep our expectations realistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans are hitting the gas on a new party-line policy bill. They are fully aware it might end up in the ditch. The renewed push for budget reconciliation \u2014 spawned out of a Monday meeting between President Donald Trump and a group of GOP senators \u2014 marks the best shot Republicans have had in months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}