New Senate Majority Leader John Thune expressed confidence his fragmented party will be able to pass big legislation.
“We’ll disagree on the margins and the process and all that sort of thing, but when it comes to the things we need to get done for the American people, that we think move the country in the right direction, those are all things I think we agree on,” Thune (R-S.D.) told CBS’ Margaret Brennan in an interview to air on “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning.
With the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump, Republicans will soon have unified control over the three branches of government. But the margins are narrow, with the GOP boasting a 53-47 majority in the Senate and a 219-215 majority in the House, where defections to the Trump administration by Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) could make things especially tight in the coming months.
Border security, immigration enforcement and tax reform are among Trump’s key priorities as he readies for a return to the White House.
The budget reconciliation process, which President Joe Biden used early in his term to pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan — and then again later for the Inflation Reduction Act — is a major reason why. With reconciliation, the minority party in the Senate is unable to launch a filibuster.
And Thune isn’t worried about ruffling Democratic feathers in the process.
“The Democrats, again, created the template for doing this with how they did the IRA and the American Rescue Plan for doing some things at 51, and we think that a generational investment in the border is necessary, given where we are after the last four years of a what I think is a very failed Biden Harris border policy,” Thune said.
Thune, who said he speaks to Trump “fairly regularly,” also expressed confidence that Republican committee chairs would navigate what could be a fraught confirmation period for some of the President-elect’s Cabinet nominees, such as Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard.
“I do think that in most cases, at least, most of our Republican senators are inclined to give the President the people that he wants in these positions, given, you know, the process that they go through and whether or not they can manage the committee process and ensure that they get to the floor for vote,” Thune said.
