WASHINGTON — The Republican majority in Congress was on a glide path to the midterms, having passed tax cuts into law and backed off budget battles with a year-end funding package. But President Donald Trump was not impressed.
Trump has been picking apart some GOP accomplishments, including the big budget bill, and complaining that others, namely his border wall, remained undone.
Congress returned Monday scrambling over a to-do list that will satisfy a president Republicans desperately need to be promoting their achievements, not undermining them, as they prepare to hit the campaign trail.
“A lot of members would prefer to spend the rest of the year focusing on getting re-elected, but there’s pressure from the White House … to deliver more policy wins before facing voters,” said Alex Conant, a GOP strategist.
On Monday, the Senate swore in its newest member, Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi. Hyde-Smith was tapped by the Mississippi governor as the first woman in Congress to represent the state, filling the seat after longtime GOP Sen. Thad Cochran resigned.
Democrat Conor Lamb will take his seat Thursday in the House after a long-shot special election win in western Pennsylvania.
Trump’s penchant for belittling lawmakers and badgering them to work doesn’t help instill voter confidence in Republicans already facing an enthusiasm gap with Democrats fired up to go to the polls, strategists say. They need Trump on their side, not piling on.
“Every day that Trump attacks Congress, he hurts Republicans’ chance of keeping the majority,” Conant said.
The problems between Trump and Congress, festering for months, spilled into the open when the president toyed with vetoing the $1.3 trillion funding bill he thought spent too much money on Democratic priorities and not enough on his.
While Congress was away, Trump started talking about rescinding some of that money, working with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on a do-over package that would force lawmakers into another round of budget votes this spring or summer. Republicans are eyeing less than $30 billion in cuts, though the White House may seek more.
At the same time, Trump’s revolving door of Cabinet secretaries has created a legislative logjam of its own. It has forced the Senate to launch lengthy confirmation hearings, starting this week for Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state. After that, there are Trump’s picks for CIA director and Veterans Affairs secretary.
The nomination battles are sure to dredge up tough debates — over the Russia probe, the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques now outlawed, and the spiraling costs and care at the VA. They’re hardly the top conversations lawmakers would choose as their focus in the months before an election.
