Still basking in their tax victory, President Trump and Republican leaders are grappling with a key question: What major legislative issue should they pursue next?
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has made clear that he wants to tackle welfare and entitlement reforms next year — perhaps using a special budget process to avoid a Democratic filibuster. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has sent a different signal, saying Senate Republicans should look to pursue more bipartisan legislation in the coming year.
White House officials are already setting high expectations, saying the administration will begin its push for welfare reform, entitlement reform and a major infrastructure package at the start of the new year.
And many conservatives are pressing GOP leadership to take another crack at repealing ObamaCare, despite the push for legislation in January that is intended to stabilize the law’s insurance markets.
“When I go back home, the No. 1 issue, by far, is still ObamaCare and major health-care reform that’s needed to bring these skyrocketing premiums to an end,” Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), one of the leaders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told The Hill.
Even as they hammer out their priorities, GOP leaders will spend the opening weeks of the new year racing to lift spending caps and fund the government before money runs out on Jan. 19. That budget deal could be paired with a bipartisan agreement to shield thousands of young immigrants brought to the country as children who have participated in the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Early in 2018, lawmakers also need to hike the debt ceiling and strike a longer-term deal to extend a controversial spying program that allows the government to collect data without a warrant on foreign targets.
All of these issues will be vying for attention and floor time in a year when the window for action is already small. With the midterm elections looming in November, lawmakers are likely to spend considerable time away from Washington in 2018, particularly in the late summer and fall.
With polls trending toward the Democrats, Republicans will be eager to rack up more accomplishments they can tout to voters.
Trump, Ryan and McConnell will huddle at the White House in early January to review the 2018 agenda, then will lay out their game plan at the joint House-Senate GOP retreat that kicks off Jan. 31 at The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.
There are sure to be disagreements.
With his dream of tax reform now realized, Ryan is hoping to make progress on two other issues he’s targeted during his two-decade career in Washington: entitlement and welfare reform.
“We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,” Ryan, a former Budget Committee chairman, said in a recent interview this month on the Ross Kaminsky radio talk show.
Medicare and Medicaid are the “big drivers of debt,” Ryan said, suggesting Republicans could once again use the budget reconciliation process to avoid a Democratic filibuster.
