Will Trump’s executive orders harm the GOP reconciliation push?

By Kelsey Brugger | 01/22/2025 06:49 AM EST

While some lawmakers have raised concerns, House Speaker Mike Johnson said planned reconciliation legislation and the president’s executive orders “dovetail nicely.”

President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order in the Oval Office.

President Donald Trump holding one of many executive orders at the White House on Monday. Pool photo by Jim Watson

President Donald Trump’s onslaught of energy executive orders intended to turbocharge domestic oil and gas production and ease environmental standards could complicate congressional Republicans’ big legislative ambitions.

That’s because Trump’s Day 1 orders could undercut the GOP’s budget reconciliation process — a massive, party-line measure packed with energy, border and tax provisions.

Republicans are looking at a host of revenue raisers and spending cuts — or offsets — in the legislation they want to push through in the next several months. But there is some concern Trump’s actions could take some of those offsets out of the equation.

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Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Monday there were potentially “some things that [Trump] could do administratively that could take off the table for purposes of a reconciliation offset.”

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