President-elect Donald Trump said that he’s open to a two-bill approach to budget reconciliation, slightly walking back his Sunday night endorsement of tackling immigration/border security, taxes, and energy in one mammoth package. Trump told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that his “preference” is “one big, beautiful bill,” while noting it would take longer, which he could “live with” and he thinks would be “cleaner.” But Trump also said that he’s open to either way, “as long as we get something passed as quickly as possible.”
The path forward on the reconciliation bill is stoking divisions between Senate and House GOP leaders, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) publicly pushes one bill, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) favors separating tax priorities from immigration and energy. Johnson has also said that he wants to send the reconciliation bill to Trump by the end of April. Trump is planning to meet several factions of House Republicans at Mar-a-Lago later this week, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, House GOP Committee chairs, and GOP lawmakers from New York, New Jersey, and California, to discuss the path forward on the reconciliation bill.