Speaker Johnson to Pursue 'One Big Bill' on Trump Agenda

The U.S. House of Representatives speaker said Sunday he would stick with a "one big bill" strategy to pass President Donald Trump's tax-cut agenda and fund border and military priorities despite a limited $340 billion budget plan unveiled on Friday by Senate Republicans.

Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News Sunday that it will take some time to secure Republican consensus amid the party's thin House majority, but he said they would find savings to offset the cost of extending 2017 tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of the year and other priorities such as excluding tip income from taxation.

Host Shannon Bream asked Johnson how he'll convince the president that the one-bill approach is better than the two-bill approach suggested by GOP senators.

"Well, I talk with the president and his team about this almost constantly, reminding them that we will get the job done, but it has to be the one big bill strategy," Johnson said. "And the reason for that is because that gives us the highest probability of success of delivering on all these campaign promises. We will get it done. The president knows that."

Johnson was asked about Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., urging the House to quickly approve funding for immigration and law enforcement officials protecting the southern border.

"Lindsey's a good friend. I have great respect for him as well, and I understand what they're engaging in. They want to move the agenda and so do we," Johnson said. "President Trump's got a mandate to deliver that America First agenda. He's working at breakneck pace … and we are going to do it with legislation.

"So, it's a very complicated and complex set of things that we are delivering. Of course we are going to secure the border. We're going to make sure that American communities are safe. We're going to get American energy dominance going again and the economy and restore common sense. But to do all that in one big bill takes little bit of time."

Johnson was asked when the House bill will be presented.

"We were going to do a budget committee market next week. We might push it a little bit further because the details really matter," he said. "Remember that I have the smallest margin in history, about a two-vote margin currently, so I've got to make sure everyone agrees before bring the project forward, that final product, and we've got a few more boxes to check but we are getting very close."

Newsmax's Charlie McCarthy contributed to this Reuters report.