Trump floats adding Los Angeles aid to reconciliation bill
President-elect Trump floated the idea Thursday of including federal aid to Los Angeles in the wake of deadly fires as part of a massive reconciliation package, suggesting that doing so would win over some Democratic votes.
Trump pitched the strategy during an interview on "The Dan Bongino Show." Bongino, a long-time Trump ally, argued Republicans should use the momentum from the 2024 election to pass the president-elect's agenda in one large reconciliation bill.
The incoming president responded that passing one reconciliation bill or breaking his agenda into two bills would have the same end result. But, he suggested the push for one large bill has been "unfortunately helped" by the fires that have ravaged swaths of Los Angeles.
"I’d like to see one bill. And because of Los Angeles, you’d think that’s a Democrat thing. They want that money going so fast. Because of Los Angeles, I think the concept of one, big, beautiful bill has been helped greatly," Trump said, noting he knew of many people who lost homes in the fires.
"If you add Los Angeles into it, then you can really do one, big, beautiful bill, because, frankly, they want that so badly," he continued. "They want the money to go out there so badly. And I don’t think we should do a bill until Los Angeles is included. And when Los Angeles is included, we get everything we want."
Democrats are unlikely to get behind a sweeping bill to enact Trump's agenda, and funding aid for Los Angeles has been a point of contention in recent days.
Many Republicans are demanding conditions on any new emergency funding for Los Angeles, blaming Democratic leaders in California for exacerbating the crisis. Democrats are pushing back, accusing Republicans of exploiting the disaster to score political points and noting Congress typically passes disaster aid without conditions.
Republicans have for weeks been debating whether to try to pass Trump's agenda on border security, tax policy, and energy and manufacturing investments as part of one reconciliation bill, or break it into two pieces to try to bank an early win. The party controls both chambers of Congress but has a slim majority in the House.
Passing legislation via the reconciliation process would require a simple majority in both chambers of Congress, meaning Republicans would not require any Democratic support, but everything included must affect spending or revenue levels.