‘Come Out Swinging’: GOP Members of Congress Anticipate Trump’s Address

Republican members of Congress shared with The Daily Signal about what they expected—and hoped—to hear in President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. 

Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal he expects Trump to “come out swinging … like he did in his second inaugural” on Jan. 20.

“I think he’ll talk about the things that he’s already done, securing the border, building our national security, making sure we get back into the production of U.S. energy. But I think he’s also going to outline ‘What are the things yet to be done?’ What’s he going to do in the days and weeks to come?” said Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va.

Trump’s remarks Tuesday came as Republicans work to avert a government shutdown on March 14, when the current continuing resolution ends.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., expressed optimism that Republicans would pass another continuing resolution to fund the government. 

“I do feel like we’ll have the votes to get it done. If we don’t, then it’ll be the Senate’s fault. And it will be on [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer not on us,” Carter said of the New York Democrat. 

A topic foremost on Americans’ minds is the economy. After years of record inflation and the rising cost of basic household goods, such as the recent egg shortages due to bird flu, Americans will be looking for economic hope on the horizon. 

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Daily Signal that he expects Trump to talk about providing economic relief for millions of Americans. 

“I think he wants to deliver on the priorities that he campaigned on, extending the expiring provision to the Trump tax cuts, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, tax relief on seniors, and he expects Congress to deliver on that,” Smith said. 

Moran emphasized that Republicans need to look to securing the future prosperity of the country. 

“We’ve got to reduce the debt, the deficit. We’ve got to cut spending. We’ve got to cut waste, fraud, abuse, and we absolutely have to extend the [2017] Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” Moran said.

Trump has already been one of the most accessible presidents in modern American history, having answered more than 1,000 questions from reporters during his first month back in office, compared with President Joe Biden’s 141 questions during the same period of time. 

Rep. Derek Schmidt, R-Kan., said he hoped he could work with the Trump administration to reduce the burden of federal regulations for Americans. 

“We have a moment here where regulatory reform can become real, where a combination of decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, plus an attitude in the halls of Congress, plus leadership from the administration and its agency heads can come together to deliver a smaller, more nimble, less burdensome, more responsive, more democratic—with a lowercase ‘d’—regulatory environment in Washington and for Americans throughout the country,” Schmidt said.

Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., told The Daily Signal that he still had hope the REINS Act would become law. The bill would require all federal regulations that impose economic costs of $100 million or more to get both the U.S. Senate and House’s approval before they could take effect. 

“The REINS Act is something that a lot of members have been either watching closely or actually have had input into, and I’m still hopeful, fingers crossed, that that will be part of any reconciliation package,” Fitzgerald said. 

One topic sure to be touted by Trump is what he is doing to end the border crisis in the United States. 

“I think that he’ll focus on the border. The fact that we have seen the number of immigrants coming across the border has decreased. The number of immigrants being returned to their country of origin has increased,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., told The Daily Signal.

“I think he’s going to mention that this is really all about fentanyl and fentanyl deaths, and the things that we have to do to address that, and he’s very serious about that, because there is an economic impact of that also,” Wittman said.

Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., noted the recently passed bipartisan Laken Riley Act, which Trump signed into law Jan. 29. The bill is named after Laken Riley, a Georgia resident who was murdered by an illegal alien who had been allowed to remain in the United States. The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain illegal immigrants charged with, or convicted of, theft-related crimes, assaulting a police officer, or a crime that results in death or serious bodily injury.

Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., told The Daily Signal that the United States needs to “bring on new technologies that enable us to truly secure our southern border [and] restore law and order to this country.” 

Members of Congress also emphasized that they were working to make the president’s executive agenda a legislative reality as well. 

“I think it’s important that we look at codifying the changes that the president is making, because we know that [an] executive order only lasts through the term of that President, and so a new president comes in [and] can issue executive orders undoing everything that President Trump has done,” Guest said.

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