House Republican leaders delivered a pointed message to their Senate counterparts on Monday: it’s time to advance President Trump’s legislative priorities. In a joint statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, along with his leadership team and committee chairs, emphasized that with the current fiscal year’s government funding issues now resolved, the focus is shifting back to “delivering President Trump’s full America First agenda.”
“The House is determined to send the president one big, beautiful bill that secures our border, keeps taxes low for families and job creators, grows our economy, restores American energy dominance, brings back peace through strength, and makes government more efficient and more accountable to the American people,” they said.
Tuesday marks one month since the House approved a budget blueprint outlining its goals for major tax and spending cuts, forming the foundation of a sweeping reconciliation package tied to Trump’s agenda. The budget reconciliation process enables Republicans to advance key priorities without facing a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. While Senate Republicans seek to make changes to the House budget, lawmakers in the lower chamber are pushing to keep their plan unchanged.
“We encourage our Senate colleagues to take up the House budget resolution when they return to Washington,” Johnson and the House GOP leaders said. “This is our opportunity to deliver what will be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in the history of our nation. Working together, we will get it done.” The House and Senate will return to Washington on Monday evening following a week-long recess. Republicans are aiming to finalize a budget blueprint within the next three weeks, ahead of Congress’s traditional two-week break for Easter and Passover.
Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, said on Fox News that the Senate may consider a compromise budget during the first week of April. “We’re going to try to iron out the things that we need to address in the House [budget],” he said.
Senate Republicans are pushing for greater flexibility on tax cuts than what the House budget permits under its $4.5 trillion net cost cap. According to the Congressional Budget Office’s traditional current law baseline, permanently extending President Trump’s first-term tax cuts—set to expire at the end of the year—would cost an estimated $4.6 trillion. However, Senate Republicans are aiming to use an alternative budget baseline that would essentially eliminate the projected cost of extending existing tax cuts. This approach would give them more fiscal space to pursue additional tax cuts, potentially worth trillions more.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, both Republicans, have been holding weekly strategy sessions with the top GOP tax writers and two key Trump administration officials to coordinate plans for tax cuts and the upcoming reconciliation package. The group includes House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri, Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Trump’s chief economic adviser Kevin Hassett. Their next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.
