Trump State of the Union piles pressure on Johnson for second reconciliation push

The Hill · Feb 25, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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President Trump used much of his State of the Union address Tuesday night to promote GOP legislation likely to hit a wall with Democrats, turning up the heat on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to pursue a complicated avenue to pass it with only Republican votes. Johnson may have only a narrow window to push much of Trump’s legislative agenda over the finish line, as the president’s party historically suffers losses in midterm elections. And the administration appears eager to sharpen its economic policy as the election cycle ramps up — a dynamic that could complicate matters for Johnson as he steers a razor-thin majority through resistance from both GOP hard-liners and moderates. Though Trump did not mention a second reconciliation package explicitly in Tuesday’s speech, he repeatedly highlighted the tax cuts enacted in his One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Shortly before the speech, Trump told news anchors that he wants new personal and corporate tax cuts this year and wants to use reconciliation to pass them, according to CNBC News. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also suggested to NBC News on Tuesday that Republicans could use the budget reconciliation process to advance a new retirement proposal that Trump unveiled during his speech. The proposal would offer Americans who do not have a retirement savings plan through their employer, such as a 401(k), access to the same plan offered to federal workers. Trump said he would match the contribution with up to $1,000 a year. “We can do it through reconciliation,” Bessent said. “This is the president coming back for working Americans — those who have been left behind.” Reconciliation is a special process that allows a party with unified control of Washington to bypass the Senate filibuster, lending them a major opportunity to move legislation that couldn’t pass otherwise. It was this process that Republicans used to enact Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year. But advancing another reconciliation package would be a heavy lift for Johnson, who had struggled to push Trump’s first-year agenda across the finish line and would likely face even stronger headwinds in an election year. Even House Republicans concede the path forward would be fraught with challenges. “Just judging from the amount of effort it took to get the last one passed, I wouldn’t bet the farm on another one happening. There seems to be a lot of outspoken opponents to doing one. Good reasons to pursue one, but I think it’s very difficult to back,” Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) said on Wednesday. Johnson is currently operating with a 218-214 majority, meaning he can afford only one Republican defection and still pass party-line legislation. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a conservative fiscal hawk who voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is already considered a likely no vote on any new reconciliation package. In January, the Republican Study Committee unveiled a framework for a second reconciliation package that includes housing reforms aimed at boosting access to homeownership; health reforms that Trump has backed, such as having ObamaCare subsidies flow to individuals rather than to insurance companies; and cuts to regulations governing energy production. But even Johnson’s allies concede it would be a heavy lift. “Obviously, the math governs what happens around here,” Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) said of a second reconciliation package. “It does any deliberative body. And so, the question will be, can you secure 218 votes and 51 votes to bend the arc of health care toward affordability and quality?” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, said that he’s always “suspect” of reconciliation bills because he prefers “two-party solutions.” “I’ve voted against multiple reconciliation bills, both Democrat and Republican,” he added. “I’m not a fan of single-party bills.” The other issue at hand is tariffs. Trump said in his speech that “congressional action will not be necessary” to impose additional levies. But his staunchest allies, led by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), are pushing a plan to use reconciliation to move legislation that would raise tariff rates with a simple majority vote to bolster Trump’s embattled trade agenda, which was shot down by the Supreme Court last week. “What we would be talking about is moving tariffs that are already in legislation to a higher amount,” Moreno said, referring to tariffs on steel and aluminum imports that are already in place under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, for example. But that strategy likely won’t play well with GOP moderates in the House, who have argued that tariffs are harming their constituents. Six House Republicans — Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Jeff Hurd (Colo.), Kevin Kiley (Calif.), Massie, Fitzpatrick and Newhouse — voted in favor of a resolution to repeal Trump’s tariffs on Canada in early February. Speaker Johnson, who still identifies as a free-trade Reagan Republican, acknowledged to Politico on Wednesday that codifying Trump’s tariffs would be tough within his conference. “It’s going to be, I think, a challenge to find consensus on any path forward on the tariffs on the legislative side,” he said. Democrats would provide no help. They’ve opposed virtually every facet of Trump’s legislative agenda, including tariffs and corporate tax cuts, and are vowing to continue that resistance heading into the midterm elections. There are “far too many people struggling here in America to live paycheck to paycheck, cannot thrive and can barely survive,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday during the Democrats’ annual issues retreat in Leesburg, Va., where party leaders bashed Trump for putting the financial interests of the wealthy over those of the working class. But some House Republicans noted that they’ve been able to pass critical bills even with a razor-thin margin, and that a second reconciliation package isn’t out of the question altogether. “The dominant narrative of the 119th [Congress] has been people telling Republicans they can’t get something done with narrow margins, and then us actually delivering victories. And so I guess I wouldn’t count us out,” Dusty Johnson said. Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) said he believes that if leadership and the White House decide to pursue a reconciliation package, it likely “would be much smaller.” “By being much smaller and incorporating reconciliation instructions to fewer committees, it’s by default also going to be less complex to get across the finish line,” he said. “Republicans are the party of independent thought. We are the policy-focused party, so we’re always going to have conversations, but as we’ve seen before, every time that the naysayers say ‘I don’t know if they’re going to get it done,’ we always get it done,” Evans added. “So we’re always going to have that robust conversation. That’s how you know that we’re putting together a good product, and then we’ll always pull together to get it across the finish line.” Alexander Bolton and Emily Brooks contributed. Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.