Freedom Caucus backs two-track strategy to tackle Trump border and tax agenda

The hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus is backing a two-step approach to tackle parts of President-elect Trump’s agenda on border, taxes and energy amid an internal clash over the approach.

The influential caucus said in a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Friday that it supports passing a “fully offset” and “focused” border reconciliation package in January, and then moving “forward to a second, larger reconciliation bill covering taxes, spending, energy, bureaucracy, and more.”

“It is our understanding that President Trump's closest advisors and experts on the border believe they must have immediate resources to begin to undo the damage caused by the Biden Administration, secure the border, and start removals and repatriations on day one,” they said.

“President Trump's agenda will be enacted, and border security must move first - and then we should move forward to a second, larger reconciliation bill covering taxes, spending, energy, bureaucracy, and more,” the letter continued. “The House Republican Conference should ensure President Trump can deliver on this critical America First agenda priority as soon as he is sworn into office.”

The position comes as prominent Republicans have been colliding on how to advance Trump’s tax agenda after incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) recently offered a plan that would put off tax reform to first take action on border security and energy production.

Proponents of the two-step strategy say the move would allow Trump and Republicans to deliver early action on a key campaign issue in the first months of his presidency.

But some House Republicans have raised concerns about prioritizing border funding before tax reform and the difficulty of getting two packages out of Congress in the same year using budget reconciliation — a special and sometimes time-consuming process that will Republicans to bypass Democratic opposition in the Senate to pass legislation, but not without some significant restrictions.

“There have not been two reconciliations that have been signed into law in the same year,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the chairman of the House’s powerful tax-writing Ways and Means committee, said earlier this month. “And why would we think in a majority of 219 to 215 that we would overperform?”

“My preference is we get right into doing the tax bill,” he also said. “I think that’s going to be one of our most important pieces of legislation. We ought to get right on it.”

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