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Republican leaders have said since at least the spring that, if they won a GOP trifecta in the elections, they wanted to act early in 2025 on a budget reconciliation bill focused on extensions of TCJA end-of-2025 expiring provisions and a much broader of swath of issues than reconciliation bills of the past. Now those aspirations are turning to action with forecasts that Republicans will control the House when uncalled races are finalized, and will have the opportunity to use the budget reconciliation process to enact a bill with a simple majority vote in the Senate — they are projected to hold a 53-vote majority next year — rather than the 60-vote filibuster threshold that would apply to the tax bill under divided government.

A front-page story in the Saturday Washington Post said, "President-elect Donald Trump is poised to push swiftly for new tax cuts if Republicans win full control of Congress, further slashing corporate rates and extending trillions of dollars of other cuts even as the national debt soars … As party leaders discuss their plans for the early days of a new Trump administration, the attitude that's emerged on taxes is, 'Just go,'" according to some familiar with the discussions. The story said while some Republicans have advocated adopting a current policy baseline to nullify the cost of extending the TCJA provisions, more likely "is a move to claw back Biden-era climate agenda spending, according to leading GOP officials."

The expectation is that Republicans want to try to move the tax bill before acting on debt limit legislation required sometime mid-year after extraordinary measures are exhausted following the expiration of the current suspension (enacted in the June 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act) on January 1, 2025. Dynamic scoring or counting the economic growth resulting from tax policies — which President-elect Trump said would cover the cost of TCJA extensions prior to the election — and rolling back Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) credits appear to be the sources of revenue, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) said on Fox News Sunday.

"When anybody talks about tax policy from these foundations, what they never say to the American people is that when they talk about $7 trillion is the cost, that's using static modeling … [that] doesn't take into effect the impact of lower tax rates and economic growth as a result … So, President Trump's tax policy is actually going to be a net benefit to the United States because it's going to breed more economic growth," he said. "Number 2, there are massive areas in the federal government that do need to be scaled back, that need to be cut. One of them that we have to take a long hard look at are the Green New Deal tax credits in the 'Inflation Reduction Act.' We need to look at those … How about we get rid of the Democrats spending boondoggles that came in under the last administration?"

Asked on Meet the Press whether President-elect Trump will be able to deliver on proposed tax cuts with an estimated price as high as $9 trillion, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), who is running for Majority Whip in leadership elections this week, said, "members of the Senate have been meeting him — on the Finance Committee — through the summer and the fall, in terms of saying, 'What can we do? How can we make sure we can continue these tax cuts from 2017, and extend them, and make them permanent? What sort of things can we claw back from some of the excessive spending that the Democrats have done, in terms of money that's going out or hasn't gone out, yet?' So, we've been working on this." He said Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will be chairman of the Budget Committee in the Senate "to make sure we can accomplish as much as we possibly can to give the tax relief that the American people deserve, need."

Election results — There are more than a dozen House races still uncalled. Republicans have won 214 seats, 4 away from the majority in the next Congress, and Democrats have won 205, according to CNN. Republicans are ahead in several of the most competitive outstanding races, and they are favored to win control of the House and Washington trifecta of power that allows them the opportunity to use budget reconciliation. In one of the closest elections involving a Ways & Means member, Rep. Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) was declared the winner of his re-election race in AZ-01 over the weekend.

Lame-duck session — Congress is back for the lame-duck session beginning tomorrow (November 12), with items for consideration including government funding beyond December 20, farm bill provisions, disaster relief, and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated as priorities for the remainder of the Administration November 7, "We're going to make sure that we keep the government open. We're going to deliver assistance for communities devastated by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other recent disasters. We're going to pass the NDAA."

The House has passed five of the 12 annual appropriations bills and the Senate none as the process to set long-term government funding through the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2025) has been beset by the political tensions of the election and the philosophical differences between House Republicans, who have sought spending cuts and controversial policy riders, and Senate Democrats, who have sought a more bipartisan approach with Senate Republicans. Politico reported November 6: "Faced with a funding deadline, especially the Dec. 20 cliff that's now set to hit the Friday before Christmas, most lawmakers are typically inclined to punt and fly home. But even anticipating a Trump win, Republican appropriators have said in recent months that they'd rather get a deal done by December and clear the decks for 2025, when a fight over expiring tax cuts promises to suck up all the oxygen on Capitol Hill."

Regarding disaster funding, lawmakers are facing pressure replenish the Small Business Administration's (SBA) disaster loan program, which ran out of funding October 15, as well as aid to communities recovering from Hurricane Helene and regarding the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.

The Finance Committee is holding a hearing on Thursday, November 14 (10 a.m.) on the nominations of Deva Kyle to be Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, replacing Gordon Hartogensis, whose term expired, and David Samuel Johnson to be Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, replacing J. Russell George, who passed away. Kyle has held positions at PBGC and Treasury and was detailed to the House Ways & Means Committee. Johnson is currently Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Leadership elections — This week, there are also leadership elections for Republicans in both the House and Senate. The current slate of House leaders is vying to remain in power: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN). In the fourth position is Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a Trump ally who has reportedly been offered the post of ambassador to the United Nations, according to CNN. Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), a Ways & Means member active on tax issues, is running for Republican Policy Committee Chairman. House Democrats are holding leadership elections November 19, and the current leadership is similarly running to remain at the top: Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), and Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA).

Running in the November 13 election to replace Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Senate Republican leader, and Majority Leader in the next Congress, are tax-writers John Thune (R-SD) and John Cornyn (R-TX), and Senator Rick Scott (R-FL).