The House threatens to be the weak link in the Republicans’ trifecta of Washington power as President-elect Donald Trump taps its lawmakers for top administration jobs.
If Mr. Trump has his way, the three House Republicans he wants on his White House team — Elise Stefanik of New York, Mike Waltz of Florida and Matt Gaetz of Florida, who has already resigned — will whittle away the slim GOP majority during the early days of the new administration.
The same as in 2017, Mr. Trump will enter the White House with his party in control of all the levers of power in Washington. And this time, Mr. Trump and congressional leaders say they are primed to quickly begin enacting his agenda.
House Speaker Mike Johnson expects at least a five-seat majority, though a handful of races have yet to be called.
“I have begged and pleaded with the new president, enough already, because our numbers are small,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, recently quipped.
The narrow margin by which the GOP runs the House and the time it takes to replace members through special elections could slow the pace of advancing Mr. Trump’s agenda.
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Democrats also are poised to exert their leverage on legislation when the narrow GOP majority fractures.
“The last two years have shown us they’ve had trouble with that, so we’ll see,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, Florida Democrat, told The Washington Times. “But if they’re not united, of course, we’re going to look for those cracks in their coalition and see how we can govern like we have in the last two years, too.”
For the past two years, the hard-line House Freedom Caucus has been at the center of Republican infighting, but that could change with Mr. Trump in the White House.
Freedom Caucus member Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said there is a lot of “overlap” with Mr. Trump’s agenda, though there is rarely drama-free lawmaking.
“There’ll be differences within the conference,” he said. “There’ll be differences from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other. There always is.”
Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, chair of the moderate Main Street Caucus, said he expects some hiccups but believed they share the same conservative goals.
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“This is a human institution. Yes, there’s always going to be a little bit of conflict present in human relationships. Listen, there will be bad days in the 119th Congress.” he said. “But rather than focus on the bad days, I just want to acknowledge that I know there’ll be even more good days … and I think as long as we continue to build on the progress we’re making, we’re in really good shape.”
Some lawmakers are more concerned about immediate issues that could bleed over into the next Congress.
Rep. Ryan Zinke, who was tapped to be Mr. Trump’s Interior Secretary during his first administration, was not too worried about losing more House members to the impending Trump administration.
Instead, Mr. Zinke, Montana Republican, was more concerned about lawmakers finishing up their work from the current Congress and warned that punting government funding to next year — an idea that has been floated — would eat away at valuable time in the early goings of the 119th Congress.
“I would say you’re dealing with yesterday’s diapers,” he said.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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