By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump’s Republican Party will control both houses of Congress when he takes office in January, Edison Research predicted on Wednesday. This allows him to push through an agenda of cutting taxes and shrinking the federal government.
Republicans will have at least the 218 votes needed to control the 435-seat House of Representatives, Edison predicted, with nine races still to be held. They have already secured at least a 52-48 majority in the U.S. Senate, with one race not called after the Nov. 5 election.
During his first presidential term in 2017-2021, Trump’s biggest achievement was the sweeping tax cuts that expire next year.
That legislation and the $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed by Democratic President Joe Biden both came during periods when their parties controlled both chambers of Congress.
By contrast, Biden has had little success passing legislation over the past two years of divided government and Congress has struggled to carry out its most basic function: providing the money needed to keep the government open.
The slim majority in the Republican House has been unruly, with the first chairman, Kevin McCarthy, removed and his successor, Speaker Mike Johnson, routinely ousted.
Trump’s grip on the party and especially its raw hardliners has been much tighter — as evidenced by his success earlier this year in hammering out a bipartisan deal that would have sharply boosted border security.
His power will also be backed by a Supreme Court with a six-to-three conservative majority, including three justices he appointed.
More immediately, the Republicans’ victory will certainly influence the post-election lame duck session of the House of Representatives.
The current Congress faces year-end deadlines for funding the government to avoid Christmas shutdowns, and for expanding Washington’s borrowing authority to avoid a historic national debt.
One possible scenario is passing temporary patches to give the incoming Trump administration a say on these two controversial topics when it takes power from the Biden administration on January 20. The new Congress will meet on January 3.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
