WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump often says Republican lawmakers need not send him any new legislation after last year’s enactment of his sweeping tax and spending package, dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But a senior administration official and GOP members see more to do on the legislative front this year — at least before election-related realities set in.

Over the weekend, Trump put another item on lawmakers’ 2026 agenda when he ordered U.S. military and law enforcement personnel to carry out an audacious mission to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Members from both parties are expected to press administration officials on the raid — and what their plans are for the South American country.

In a Dec. 22 telephone interview, the senior administration official, granted anonymity to be candid, offered a measured legislative forecast for the year, as both parties turn their focus to a midterm election season that will determine control of Congress — and the future of Trump’s remaining domestic agenda.

“Obviously, we have an incredibly narrow House majority, so that’s a pretty tight window … in terms of how you get the votes,” the senior administration official said.

Another narrowing factor will be the truncated election year legislative calendar, with the House and Senate scheduled to be out of session for nearly all of October and the first week of November in addition to other standard recess periods.

“I think there are a couple of things that have to get done in the new year — and in the … first two quarters, where you’re going to have some opportunity for legislation,” the senior official said, adding that funding the government past Jan. 30 remained the No. 1 priority.

Beyond the funding deadline, the White House is looking at other pieces of legislation.

“One is you have at this point two bipartisan housing packages that have cleared committees by pretty substantial votes,” the official said. “You can definitely look at those as pretty good nuclei for a housing push.”

The president and his White House team also would like to pass anti-crime legislation in 2026.

“There are a number of different bipartisan bills that have cleared the House with pretty substantial support in the crime area,” the senior official said. “You kind of see those being potentially some of the bones of a bipartisan crime package.”

Still, the mercurial Trump is an in-the-moment figure, so predictions about his legislative whims can be tough.

“We don’t need (legislation) because we got everything,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Dec. 10 when asked if he wanted Republican lawmakers to move another big package in the new year. “There was something great for everybody in … the great Big Beautiful Bill.”

But during another exchange with reporters in the Oval Office on Dec. 15, Trump endorsed a second Republican try at a reconciliation bill — which would bypass the 60-vote threshold in the Senate — or nixing the legislative filibuster to get favored legislation to his desk.

“Look, we should knock out the filibuster. And if you did that, we’d get voter ID. You’d have no mail-in voting,” he said, referring to two signature issues. “And you (would) get a lot of other things having not even to do with voting. But Republicans should knock out the filibuster, and we should approve a lot of things.”

‘Spanking by the electorate’

For now, as Washington revs up for the new year, government funding and health care rank among the more immediate priorities.

The House is expected to vote on a Democrat-led bill to extend, for three years, enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired on Dec. 31. But the measure isn’t likely to get far in the Senate, where a procedural vote on a similar bill was rejected.

“I’d like to see us get right into this. I don’t know why we have to extend this. Could be done rapidly, if the Democrats would come along,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Dec. 18. He also repeated his call for federal subsidies paid to insurers to help offset the costs of ACA premiums to “go directly to the people and let them buy their own health care.”

To that end, the senior administration official said “it remains to be seen whether or not the Democrats are serious about doing what they need to do to deal on subsidies and meet the president’s desire for what he’s he stated publicly on a number of occasions — he wants the money going to the people and not to insurance companies.”

“We’ll see if there’s some openness there,” the official added. “I think there are certainly reasons to be bearish about that prospect.”

But Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed the same sentiment about Republicans in a recent interview.

“It’d be great if they came to their senses on health care,” he said. “But it may take a spanking by the electorate before they realize their lack of health care plans is going to bite him in the butt.”

Several Republican senators said last month they expect the party, with Trump’s backing, to attempt another reconciliation measure — though they were unclear about what it would contain.

“We only have to get to 51 votes. So it’s the only thing we can really do, reconciliation,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said.

‘All about the economy’

Beyond that, Tuberville, who is running for governor, said he expects Congress to consider legislation aimed at paring down prices because “it’s all about the economy, obviously.”

Another Republican, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, also anticipates some kind of affordability measure. “It’s kitchen-table issues or economic issues that really motivate voters,” he said in a recent interview.

Cornyn, who faces a tough primary battle this year, said he foresees Trump backing another reconciliation measure.

“He wants to get some points on the scoreboard because the midterms are, obviously, important,” Cornyn said.

The senior administration official agreed, saying it was on Trump’s radar.

“I certainly wouldn’t say it’s something that’s (being) ruled out. But I think the president is, at least according to his comments, aware of the challenges that the reconciliation process represents. He is probably more aware than any other official because he played such a critical role in carrying it over the finish line with both chambers (last year).”

Asked if the shortened legislative year would allow for enough time to negotiate such a measure among sometimes fractious House and Senate Republicans, the senior official said: “Well, we did it once,” before adding, “I don’t know how likely it is.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he expects that legislation Trump would support includes “Section 230 reform,” a reference to the law that generally shields online platforms from being legally liable for what users post, while also allowing them to moderate content without being treated as the publisher.

Additionally, the senior administration official said Trump has interest in moving legislation related to cryptocurrency. (Notably, Trump’s family’s business has raked in a hefty sum from crypto ventures.)

Warner said he thinks there could be movement on “a crypto market structure bill” — though he added a caveat: “But it’s as complicated as anything I’ve ever worked on.”

_____

(Niels Lesniewski and Jessie Hellmann contributed to this report.)

_____

©2026 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.