Freedom Caucus holds its fire on Johnson’s strategy for passing Trump agenda

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are holding their fire despite Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) bucking their preferred strategy for passing President-elect Trump’s agenda, arguing that the ultimate product is more important than the configuration.

The Freedom Caucus’s board of directors sent a letter to Johnson last month endorsing a two-bill strategy for reconciliation, the procedural maneuver that would allow Republicans to pass Trump’s priorities without Democratic votes. They called for a border-focused package in January then a second, larger measure later on that includes tax and energy policy. The position aligned with that of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who has advocated for the two-bill track.

Weeks later, however, Johnson is barreling ahead with a single, sprawling reconciliation package, a position he staked out after Trump said he preferred “one powerful bill.” The president-elect has emphasized that posture a number of times since, while still keeping the door open to moving two bills.

Johnson’s game plan runs counter to the wishes of the Freedom Caucus, which has a track record of being a thorn in the side of leadership and revolting against top lawmakers — at times grinding the House to a halt — when their preferences are not prioritized. This time around, however, the hard-line conservatives, who are set to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, are keeping their powder dry, falling in line with the Speaker’s play call.

“You’ve only got so much time. What we’re facing is President Trump's got 12, 13 months, that's it. It's just a matter of what we can get passed and get in,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a Freedom Caucus member. “At the end of the day if they do one — I'd prefer two — if they do one, and if it's substantive, I'd be fine with that.”

Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.), another member of the conservative group, echoed that sentiment, citing Trump’s stated preference for a single package.

“It’s up to the president and his preference was one, and so the Speaker is taking his cue from the president and proceeding with one. Absent any direction by the president in another direction we’re gonna continue on the path of one,” Cline said. “Individual members are gonna have their individual positions, but I am OK with it at this point.”

Rather than strategy, the hard-line Republicans have said their main concerns lie in how the bill is put together and what policy is included. Conservatives have been adamant that they want an open, member-driven process for crafting legislation that enacts Trump’s agenda, demands they aired in the lead-up to last week’s Speaker election.

“I’m OK with whatever gets the president’s agenda accomplished. I think the key thing is the details in the overall proposal, what the construction looks like,” said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a Freedom Caucus member and close Trump ally. “The end result is what matters, everything else is just preferences.”

“If we get the agenda done that we have all campaigned on, everybody will be happy whether you’re [House Freedom Caucus] or [Problem Solvers Caucus],” he added.

Norman, who opposed Johnson for Speaker last week before changing his vote to support him, said “all of it’s in the details, particularly with cuts, offsets.”

In a letter to House Republicans last week, right after Johnson won the Speaker’s gavel, members of the Freedom Caucus board of directors issued a series of demands for legislation in the 119th Congress, including spending cuts. The group of 11 hard-liners said they supported Johnson for the top job despite “reservations” regarding his leadership track record.

“There is always room to negotiate on so-called ‘leadership’ positions under the rules; in the meantime, each one of our election certificates is still equal,” they wrote. “Personalities can be debated later, but right now there is zero room for error on the policies the American people demanded when they voted for President Trump — the ones necessary to save the country.”

“We demand the House of Representatives deliver — quickly,” they added.

Republicans on Capitol Hill for weeks have been debating strategy for reconciliation, the budgetary process that allows parties with full control in Washington to bypass opposition from across the aisle.

Thune, the newly minted Senate majority leader, made his preference for two bills known in early December, as he looks to secure victories on the border early on before working through an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which will likely be a thornier undertaking.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, has been a public proponent of moving a single bill. Single-track advocates argued that it would be easier for one bill to move through the slim GOP majority since there would be more favored provisions outshining items some members may oppose.

Johnson on Tuesday reiterated that the House will move forward with one bill, siding with Smith rather than Thune and the Freedom Caucus members.

“We still remain convinced over here that the one-bill strategy is the best way to go,” Johnson said. “We will get the two chambers united on the same strategy and I think the president still prefers one big, beautiful bill, as he likes to say, and there’s a lot of merit to that.”

Trump, meanwhile, has stated on a number of occasions that he prefers a single bill, but he is also leaving the prospect of two measures on the table. During a press conference on Tuesday, the president-elect said “I like one big, beautiful bill, and I always have, I always will,” before adding “but if two is more certain, it does go a little bit quicker because you can do the immigration stuff early.”

Freedom Caucus members are scheduled to visit with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday as part of a series of meetings the president-elect is conducting with a diverse array of House Republicans. One member of the group who is intending on joining the meeting told The Hill they want to hear from the president-elect “how can we best help implement the Trump agenda.”

While Johnson is pushing a single-measure track, some hard-liners believe their preference of a pair of bills will ultimately be the strategy utilized. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), a Freedom Caucus member, predicted that Republican leaders will have trouble cramming all their priorities into a single bill and ultimately shift to the two-track approach.

“As you start to prioritize what you want to get done and how quickly you want to get it done, a two-bill solution becomes more of a reality because the larger it is the more complicated it is in the time it’s going to take,” Ogles told The Hill. “It makes sense for them to move in a direction, but if you hit an obstacle and you have to adapt, they always have that opportunity.”

Emily Brooks contributed.