President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance brainstormed in the Oval Office on Tuesday on a path to execute the president’s ambitious agenda amid narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress with the top two congressional Republicans, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Conflicting accounts came out of the meeting on whether Republicans will pursue a single-track strategy on budget reconciliation.
Johnson said there was a “great spirit of unity” — though he declined to confirm whether Senate Republicans agreed to pursue one reconciliation bill — saying only that the plan is “pretty well formulated.”
“I’m not going to talk about the discussions that we had, but we do have a strategy that we’re all working on together. It will be bicameral and there’s a lot of excitement about that,” Johnson said upon his return to the Capitol on Tuesday evening.
Vice President J.D. Vance delivers remarks as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) and U.S. House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) look on in the viewing area in Emancipation Hall for the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Jasper Colt-Pool/Getty Images
“It was a great meeting,” Johnson said. “We talked about strategy and priorities for the Congress and where we are and where we’re headed.”
“I can tell you the Republican Party is united and excited,” Johnson added.
Trump, for his part, told reporters that he was pushing for “one big bill, pretty much,” saying that Republicans might have leverage in providing disaster relief funding for the wildfires in Los Angeles.
“I think we have a good situation,” Trump said. “Now, it’s been in some ways, made simpler by Los Angeles, because they’re going to need a lot of money. And, generally speaking, I think you find that a lot of Democrats are going to be asking for help. So I think maybe that makes it more one-sided.”
Thune told reporters that the meeting “covered a lot of ground” and “talked through all the issues.”
“That discussion is always predicated on what we can get done and we’re obviously all interested in getting to the same destination, so we’ve got several deadlines ahead of us,” Thune said. “There’s a lot to do and part of it is figuring out how to stage it.”
“Well, there are lots of great theories, but there’s always a difference when you have to translate that into practice,” Thune added.
But House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who joined a larger meeting of Republican leaders with Trump in the Cabinet Room, revealed that they agreed to move forward on one measure.
“We are moving forward with one bill,” Scalise said.
Pressed whether Thune agreed to the one-bill strategy, Scalise answered, “Yeah.”
Scalise said Republicans have not made a final decision on when to take up the debt limit but signaled it could be tied to government funding, which expires on March 14.
Trump is set to meet with a group of moderate House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon at the White House, multiple sources told ABC News. Some of the members who will attend include Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, New York Rep. Mike Lawler and others.
“Everyone who was there will say it was a delightful meeting. Everybody is excited and ready to work, and we are going to deliver on the America First agenda,” Johnson said. “The party is working in unison. The leaders in both chambers are working in a bicameral fashion and the president is all on board.”
Thune signaled recess appointments were discussed in the meeting — explaining “that’s something that he’s expressed an interest in the past” as he pivoted to pressure Democrats to support Trump’s nominees.
The Supreme Court in a 2014 decision gave the executive branch broad leeway to fill executive branch vacancies when the Senate is not in session, even for political purposes such as difficulty securing Senate confirmation.
The court’s guidelines for the process notes that the Senate is in recess “when it says it is” and that the Constitution requires the recess to last 10 days or more for a president to be able to fill a position.
A vote of the House is also necessary to approve an adjournment of 10 days or more. The Constitution’s Adjournment’s Clause says neither chamber should be out of session “for more than three days” without consent of the other.
-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.