washington<u+2014>republican leaders said wednesday they were prepared to move quickly to take advantage of their full control of the white house and both chambers of congress next year, as donald trump <u+2019>s unexpected presidential victory brought once-distant gop goals within reach but also raised the possibility of new tensions. in separate news conferences, house speaker paul ryan (r., wis.) and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell (r., ky.) sounded upbeat about the prospects of advancing major goals to repeal president barack obama <u+2019>s signature health-care law , to cut taxes, and to roll back regulations, especially those dealing with the environment. <u+201c>the opportunity is to go big, to go bold, to get things done for the people of this country,<u+201d> mr. ryan said wednesday at a news conference in his hometown of janesville, wis. not every item on the agenda will be easy. republicans have had deep differences with mr. trump, whose policy stances and contentious comments they criticized during the long and turbulent presidential campaign. republicans are divided over trade policy and immigration, and many gop leaders have questioned mr. trump<u+2019>s unorthodox questioning of nato provisions that require members to defend each other. hard-line fiscal conservatives are loath to raise the debt ceiling, a potentially market-rattling task that will be at hand next year, and many question whether mr. trump<u+2019>s goal of building a wall along the mexican border is feasible. <u+201c>we<u+2019>re going to be enthusiastically supportive almost all the time, and where we have differences we will talk about them privately,<u+201d> mr. mcconnell said. republicans and mr. trump himself on wednesday began the process of reconciling. through his staff, mr. trump has already reached out to the main street partnership, which represents moderate republicans, to say he knows that several republicans in the group didn<u+2019>t support him, but that there are no hard feelings and everyone needs to get to work, said rep. chris collins (r., n.y.), a liaison between congress and the trump campaign. <u+201d>mr. trump has already shown in his speech he is going to be very magnanimous in victory,<u+201d> mr. collins said. for his part, mr. ryan was effusive in his praise for mr. trump, calling his victory <u+201c>the most incredible political feat i have seen in my lifetime,<u+201d> and said he had spoken twice to mr. trump in the past 24 hours. house minority leader nancy pelosi (d., calif.) said that she too and spoken with mr. trump and would work with him to find common ground where possible. dismantling the obama administration<u+2019>s 2010 health-care law<u+2014>one of the main areas of agreement between mr. trump and congressional republicans<u+2014>topped the gop<u+2019>s quickly emerging legislative wish list. republicans next year will also be positioned to dismantle the dodd-frank financial overhaul, rewrite the tax code and boost military spending. but democrats won<u+2019>t be powerless in the senate, where most legislation needs 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles. full gop control of both chambers of congress and the white house means republicans will now be responsible for making potentially unpopular decisions over how to fund the government or raise its borrowing limit<u+2014>contentious bills which they have typically relied on a small handful of centrist republicans and democrats to carry in the past. the government will need to increase the debt limit sometime after march 2017. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s going to be tough,<u+201d> rep. phil roe (r., tenn.) said of raising the debt limit next year. <u+201c>we will get it done, but how we get it done, i couldn<u+2019>t tell you.<u+201d> republicans will hold 52 seats in the senate next year, with the democratic caucus in control of 48 seats, assuming that republican john kennedy wins the louisiana runoff in december, as expected. gop sen. kelly ayotte of new hampshire conceded to democratic gov. maggie hassan on wednesday in the year<u+2019>s tightest senate race. in the senate, both parties will have to grapple with how to handle mr. trump<u+2019>s nominees to the supreme court, which has been operating with eight justices since antonin scalia died in february. senate democrats blasted republicans for refusing all year to consider merrick garland, mr. obama<u+2019>s nominee to the high court. now democrats will have to decide whether to vote against mr. trump<u+2019>s nominees. a democratic blockade could nudge republicans to change the chamber<u+2019>s rules to allow supreme court nominees to be confirmed with just a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes currently required for high court nominees. gop leaders will also have to forge a governing relationship with mr. trump, a political novice, as he seeks to push through the contentious domestic and foreign policy ideas he floated in his campaign. mr. trump, for instance, has pledged to build a wall along the southern border and force mexico to pay for it. it is unclear if congressional republicans would be willing to allocate new funds for such a wall if mexico declines to do so. mr. mcconnell and mr. ryan criticized mr. trump this year for his proposals to ban muslims from entering the u.s., his praise for russian president vladimir putin and his comments about women, among others. mr. ryan said in early october that he would no longer defend the gop nominee after a 2005 video surfaced showing him talking in crude sexual terms about grabbing women without their consent. but mr. ryan struck a far more cooperative tone wednesday in the hours after mr. trump<u+2019>s stunning victory, saying gop leaders would work with him as he assumes power. <u+201c>donald trump heard a voice out in this country that no one else heard, <u+201c> mr. ryan said, noting that gop leaders would coordinate with him on how to approach the final weeks this congress will be in session before the new crop of lawmakers are sworn in in january. the biggest deadline facing congress is the expiration of the government<u+2019>s current funding on dec. 9. republicans will now have less of an incentive to try to strike a long-term funding agreement with mr. obama, making it more likely that lawmakers may just agree to extend current funding levels until mr. trump is in office. democrats said they hoped mr. trump would stick to his campaign pledge to push for higher infrastructure funding. <u+201c>we can work together to quickly pass a robust infrastructure jobs bill,<u+201d> mrs. pelosi said in a statement wednesday. <u+201c>we have a responsibility to come together and find common ground.<u+201d> write to siobhan hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com and kristina peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com
republican leaders target sweeping changes after election day triumph - wsj
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