Budget Reconciliation Priorities for the 119th Congress

Factsheet Budget and Spending

Budget Reconciliation Priorities for the 119th Congress

February 18, 2025 2 min read Download Report

Summary

The reconciliation process is the prime way for the 119th Congress to enact the mandate that the American people gave President Trump to restore America. Budget reconciliation is a legislative vehicle that is not subject to a Senate filibuster, and through this process President Trump can sign an America First legislative package into law. Reconciliation should protect the nation and the border, unleash American energy, provide a road map for dismantling the Department of Education, reduce the deficit, and protect hardworking taxpayers.

Key Takeaways

Budget reconciliation should restore national security, secure the border, deport illegal aliens, enforce immigration laws, and return security to American streets.

Reconciliation must be utilized to cut wasteful spending, slash regulations, wind down the Department of Education, and work to dismantle the deep the state.

Unleashing our energy resources and preserving Trump’s tax cuts are essential to digging out from Bidenomics and restoring Trump’s pre-COVID record economic growth.

 

The Issue

Reconciliation is the prime way for the 119th Congress to enact the mandate that the American people gave President Donald Trump to restore America. Reconciliation shouldprotect the border, unleash American energy, provide a road map for dismantling the Department of Education, reduce the deficit, and protect hardworking taxpayers.

Whether policymakers take a one or two-bill approach, they should, at a minimum:

Provide Resources for Border Security and Immigration Enforcement. Reconciliation should provide the resources that President Trump needs to secure the border, deport illegal aliens, enforce immigration laws, and return security to American streets and neighborhoods. This includes at least 1,000 new miles of border wall, 30,000 new border patrol agents, 100,000 detention beds, 12,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removal agents, 1,000 ICE mission support staff, 4,000 Office of the Principal Legal Advisor attorneys, and 1,000 Executive Office for Immigration Review judges.

Increase Energy Independence. Reconciliation can unleash America’s energy resources by leasing federal lands for energy resources’ exploration and extraction, streamlining permitting processes, and deregulating U.S. energy industries.

Reduce Inflation and Cut Wasteful Spending. Building on the efforts of DOGE, reconciliation should cut wasteful federal spending that created inflationary deficits and has bankrolled the radical Left’s abortion, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and foreign aid grift.

Dismantle the Deep State. Reconciliation can deprive the deep state of its power by broadly deregulating our economy and giving American workers, entrepreneurs, and innovators the freedom to create prosperity free from bureaucratic control.

Create a Road Map to Closing the Disastrous Department of Education. Though not all funding for the Education Department runs through accounts that reconciliation can directly touch, much of it does. Any mandatory funding streams for the Education Department can and should be repealed in reconciliation, with core constitutional programs relocated to other agencies. Reconciliation can also be used creatively to go after discretionary Education Department funds by clawing back inappropriate grant money as well as taxing bureaucrats’ salaries to encourage them to do the right thing and take the buyout option that President Trump is offering.

Ensure National Security and Counter China. Reconciliation should provide resources to ensure military readiness, revitalize the defense industrial base, and modernize naval and air defense capabilities and the nuclear triad. Further, reconciliation should provide the resources and reforms necessary to root out Chinese influence and ensure U.S. national security without letting the Left weaponize continuing resolutions and other spending bills.

Preserve and Expand on Tax Cuts for Families and Businesses. Congress should use reconciliation to make permanent and expand on the tax cuts that President Trump championed during his first term. These tax cuts were essential to the record economic growth under the first Trump Administration and will be critical to digging the country out from Bidenomics.

Authors

Richard Stern
Richard Stern

Director, Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget

Steve Chartan
Steve Chartan

Vice President, Government Relations

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