BURSTHouse Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a Fox News interview that aired Monday that his party’s new agenda will be “very aggressive beginning right out of the gate.”
"Special Report" anchor Bret Baier questioned Johnson about a report from The New York Times about the House Speaker soon having to deal with a miniscule headcount lead of his fellow Republicans in the lower chamber.
“Look, we're excited about this. We've demonstrated already that we can govern with a small majority,” Johnson responded. “And, I'm very confident that we can check the boxes and get this agenda done and [it’ll be] very aggressive beginning right out of the gate.”
Republicans are set to have a governing trifecta next year, gaining the White House and Senate in the 2024 elections. However, the House is set to be almost evenly divided between Democrats and the GOP at the beginning of next year, with the GOP leading by only two seats, 217-215.
“There is a real esprit de corps among the Republicans in Congress right now. We have a new president, a new day in America. President Trump is coming into the White House with a big mandate,” Johnson said in his Fox News appearance. “And I think that extends to us as well.”
Among some of the plans Republicans have said they have for the next Congress is a border security bill. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday that a bill of that kind should be “the first order of business in the Senate Budget Committee.”
“Stephen Miller was spot on when he said that the Senate and House should first pass a border security bill through the budget reconciliation process,” Graham said in a post on the social platform X, referring to President-elect Trump’s pick for his deputy chief of staff for policy.
“While I support spending restrictions and tax cuts, my top priority – and the first order of business in the Senate Budget Committee – is to secure a broken border,” the incoming leader of the Budget Committee added. “The bill will be transformational, it will be paid for, and it will go first.”