According to Edison Research on Wednesday (Dec. 4), Republicans in the US House of Representatives will hold a slim 220-215 majority in the upcoming session of Congress next month. This came after Democrats gained a seat in California.
This slim majority means there will be very little room for GOP lawmakers to vote against reconciliation bills. The narrow majority will also determine how sweeping the policy proposals of Republicans will be.
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The US President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming administration is planning to use a complicated budget reconciliation process to tackle issues like immigration and energy. Both of these issues will be covered in a single bill and the issue of taxes will be covered next year in a separate bill. However, the specifics of this measure or how they will impact policies are not clear yet.
Reconciliation is usually used when one party controls the White House, Senate, and the House.
In 2017, Republicans held unified control of Congress and the White House with 241 House seats. The margin was wider than they will have in the next term.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who is going to be majority leader in January when Trump starts his second term in the White House, said Republicans are working through “how best to maximize the opportunity we have through reconciliation to achieve a lot of the president’s and our objectives and things that he campaigned on.”
“And, you know, there is the tax piece, but we’ve got until the end of the year to do that. So the question is how do we execute on using the opportunity of reconciliation,” Washington States Standard reported him adding to the statement.
“Reconciliation is extremely complex, as those of us who have been through it before know,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins.
(With inputs from agencies)