Johnson and Thune Emerge From White House Meeting Without Consensus on Reconciliation

“It’s very much settled in the House,” Rep. Max Miller said of the reconciliation debate. “It doesn’t seem like it’s settled in the chamber right next to us.”

Mike Johnson

House Speaker Mike Johnson listens as President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office at the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Kevin Lamarque/AP

Speaker Mike Johnson left a closed-door meeting at the White House with congressional leadership on Tuesday sounding confident in his plan to execute Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda.

At last, Johnson suggested to reporters, Republicans had settled the heated debate on whether to pursue one or two major legislative packages. GOP lawmakers would bundle everything, from tax policy revisions to border security crackdowns to energy reforms, into one massive bill and then pass it through budget reconciliation.

That’s what he and Trump have spent weeks lobbying for, and that’s what Johnson’s leadership team said Congress would pursue.