By Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom
WASHINGTON — Republicans will hold on to their majority in the U.S. House and regain control of the Senate when Congress convenes in January, setting the party up to potentially make major policy changes during the next two years.
The GOP hadn’t clinched the 218 House seats needed for a majority until late Wednesday, when The Associated Press, the news organization that States Newsroom relies upon for race calls based on decades of experience, called control of the chamber. The AP called 208 seats for Democrats so far, with nine yet to be decided as of early Thursday.
When combined with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the election results will have sweeping implications for the country’s future and could give the former president the chance to add one or more justices to the Supreme Court.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a press conference Tuesday before the AP projected the GOP would retain its majority that he’s been talking with fellow GOP lawmakers for months, setting up a plan for unified control of government, though he declined to share specifics.
“Over the past year, I’ve been working with our committee chairs and our Senate colleagues to lay the groundwork for this America first agenda,” Johnson said. “It will grow our economy and reduce inflation. It will secure our borders. We will restore America’s energy dominance once again. We’ll implement educational freedom and we will drain the swamp. And that’s just the beginning of the agenda.”
The AP projected Republicans would hold 53 Senate seats after flipping Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia’s seats from blue to red. There was, however, an extremely small chance the Keystone State could shift back to Democrats.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey had yet to concede Pennsylvania’s Senate race to Republican Dave McCormick, and the contest was heading to a recount.
Who ultimately wins the outstanding races will determine how often GOP leaders need to rely on Democrats for votes during the next two years and how often they can go at it alone.
Republicans in the House faced hurdles during the last two years when they tried to move bills through that chamber without Democratic support, mostly due to strong differences of opinion between centrist and far-right members of the GOP Conference.
That isn’t likely to change during the next Congress, especially with Republicans on track to continue their razor-thin House majority.
Tax cuts a priority
GOP lawmakers are likely to use unified control of Congress to address core aspects of their 2017 tax law that are set to expire or have already done so and make significant changes to the country’s health insurance marketplace, namely by overhauling the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Leaders will likely use the complicated budget reconciliation process for those tasks, and possibly others, getting them around the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster and ensuring they won’t need Democratic support.
Republicans will also need to keep up with the annual to-do list in Congress, including drafting the dozen annual government funding bills and the yearly defense policy bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act.
Republicans, who regularly campaign on the annual deficit and cumulative national debt, must figure out a way to raise or suspend the country’s debt limit, which is set to expire on Jan. 1.
They’ll have a few months of what are known as “extraordinary measures” for the debt limit while they hash out an agreement, but need to reach some sort of deal if they want to avoid defaulting on the country’s debts for the first time in history and starting a global financial crisis.
Johnson is on track to remain at the helm in the House after aiding the party in keeping the majority, though he’ll need to go through the formality of a floor vote in January.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune will become his chamber’s next majority leader following a closed-door, secret ballot vote of Republican senators on Wednesday.
The two GOP leaders, as well as committees with jurisdiction, will embark on a two-year sprint to address as much as they can before voters head to the polls again in November 2026, possibly changing the balance of power once again.
Jennifer Shutt covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom.