Scalise: House GOP Moving Forward with One Reconciliation Bill

Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), and Congressman Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.) to discuss House Republicans' reconciliation bill, which will receive a markup on Thursday. Additionally, Leader Scalise highlighted the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, legislation on the floor this week focused on further preventing dangerous criminals from getting away with crime at the border.
 
On President Trump’s record pace upon returning to office:

“We are just getting started, and it's a new day, and you're already seeing the benefits of President Trump's aggressive approach towards turning Washington back to the people, standing up for the people of this country that have been beaten down that have been struggling under the failed policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the last four years. It's been at a rapid pace. If you compare Donald Trump's first month in office in 2017 to what you're seeing today, you're watching a much more focused and aggressive president who came to Washington to finally stand up and fight for those families who have been struggling. He's taking the lessons from his first term in delivering bigger results, faster results for the American people.”

On the House’s reconciliation plan that helps secure our border:

“If you look at some of the things we're working on right now, obviously, the budget is something you may ask the Speaker about, I don't know, maybe one or two questions, but it's something we've been spending a lot of time on because it is the way that we're going to be delivering some of the biggest commitments that were made during the election. Some of the biggest things that President Trump wants to accomplish are included in our reconciliation plan.

“If you think about it, there are a lot of bills out there, a lot of ideas out there. There's only one plan that delivers all of the commitments and priorities that President Trump has, and that's the House plan. If you think about what we're trying to do with first getting a budget, then getting a reconciliation bill. It's going to be to deliver for border security, making sure that we can build the wall, making sure that we give our Border Patrol Agents the tools they need, night vision goggles, other technology like drones so that they can more safely and effectively protect and secure America's border from the massive flow of illegals that we saw the last four years.”

On House Republicans' focus on championing American energy and preventing tax hikes:

“We're going to produce more American energy. Yes, in the Gulf of America, in ANWR, and every point in between, we're going to deliver in that big, beautiful bill more American energy that was shut off by the Biden administration, who coddled foreign countries, made us more dependent on foreign energy, we're going to reverse that and allow our country to deliver again. Not just creating more jobs, not just lowering costs for families at the pump and at the grocery store, which it will do, but allowing us to be energy independent again and help our allies around the world again. Exporting LNG, for example, when Biden said no to that, we're going to be saying yes, which, again, lowers costs here at home.

“Then we're going to ensure that there are no Americans that see a tax increase. If Biden got his way, if Kamala Harris got her way, if the Democrats who are in the minority got their way, the American people would see a multi-trillion dollar tax increase. House Republicans are not going to let that happen. That's part of our bill is to continue the tax cuts from 2017, keeping those rates stable, adding on the priorities that President Trump talked about in the campaign, like no tax on tips, and giving real certainty to our economy to create more jobs, to bring more investment into America. That's what we're fighting to do, and we're going to deliver. The budget chairman indicated they may go as early as Thursday of this week in the Budget Committee to start this process. But we're not going to stop working on this until it gets done. Failure is not an option.”

On the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act:

“We're also going to continue bringing bills to the floor, and I think you heard [Chairwoman] Lisa McClain talk in detail about the bills we're bringing. Look, when you think about this idea of illegals coming here, fleeing law enforcement and the harm it's caused, deaths it's caused to Border Patrol Agents and others, finally bringing a bill to make that a deportable offense. That's a bill that got a lot of bipartisan votes last year when we brought it, but Chuck Schumer said he wasn't going to even allow it to come up for a vote last year. Well, again, it's a new day in the Senate, and Senator Thune and his majority are going to bring that bill to the floor when we send it over to him, and that will have a really good chance of getting to President Trump's desk, like the Laken Riley Act, where the President will be able to sign more legislation just in his first weeks in office to deliver on those promises of securing America's border.”

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