Ryan, McConnell eager to act on Trump agenda

“We are going to hit the ground running” on President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday in Janesville, Wis.
“We are going to hit the ground running” on President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday in Janesville, Wis.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Republicans pledged swift action Wednesday on President-elect Donald Trump's agenda as they heralded an extraordinary new era of unified GOP control in Washington.

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AP

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that he planned to work with Donald Trump “to change the course for America.”

"He just earned a mandate," House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin declared of Trump. "We are going to hit the ground running."

Said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky: "We would like to see the country go in a different direction and intend to work with him to change the course for America."

Republicans saw their majorities in the House and Senate reduced, but not by much. Though Ryan and McConnell both had well-publicized reservations about Trump, both were quick to declare that the president-elect deserved the credit.

"Donald Trump pulled off an amazing political feat. He deserves tremendous credit for that," said Ryan, who initially refused to endorse Trump and last month declared he'd no longer defend the presidential nominee. "It helped us keep our majorities, but it also showed the country that people don't like the direction we were going."

First up would be repealing President Barack Obama's health care law, something Republicans have already shown they can get through Congress with just a narrow Senate majority. What they haven't done is unite around a plan for ensuring that the 20 million who achieved health care coverage under the landmark law don't lose it.

Republicans also celebrated the opportunity to fill the existing Supreme Court vacancy, and potentially more to come. McConnell was being widely praised for his strategy of refusing to act on Obama's nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February.

And Republicans pledged to try to unwind any number of executive moves by Obama, including tougher clean-air rules on power plants, looser restrictions on travel to Cuba and tougher rules on sleep for long-haul truckers, among others -- "Every single one that's sucking the very life out of our economy," GOP Sen. David Perdue of Georgia said in an interview.

Some of Trump's goals could be harder to achieve. A wall on the southern border is estimated to cost $10 billion to $20 billion.

The Senate Democratic minority stood as the only legislative barrier to Trump's goals, since 60 votes are required for most consequential moves in the Senate.

Republicans were poised to end up with 52 Senate seats after Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., conceded to Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan in their close race. That assumes the GOP wins a December runoff in Louisiana, as expected. Democrats managed to pick up only one other GOP-held Senate seat, in Illinois.

In Pennsylvania, GOP Sen. Pat Toomey won a narrow victory for his second term over Democratic challenger Katie McGinty. It was a race Democrats expected to win going into the night.

The story was the same in Wisconsin, where GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, written off for months by his own party, won re-election against former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in a rematch.

Democrats did grab a Republican-held seat in Illinois, where GOP Sen. Mark Kirk lost to Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth, a double-amputee Iraq war vet. That stood as the one Democratic pickup.

The other bright spot for Democrats was in Nevada, where Minority Leader Harry Reid's retirement after five terms created a vacancy. Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada's former attorney general, beat Republican Rep. Joe Heck, who struggled with sharing the ticket with Donald Trump, first endorsing and then un-endorsing Trump to the disgust of some GOP voters.

In the House, Republicans were on track to lose nine seats, a modest reduction to a wide GOP majority that now stands at 247-188, including three vacant seats.

"We kicked their tails last night," said GOP Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, head of the Republicans' House campaign committee.

Trump's win appeared to be going far to heal divisions within the GOP, as even Republicans who'd long harbored doubts about him offered warm pledges of support.

A few Republicans made clear that Congress would be asserting its constitutional prerogatives as a check and balance on the executive, following what Republicans viewed as overly expansive use of executive power by Obama.

"It's just our constitutional duty to keep the executive branch in check," GOP Rep. Todd Young, the newly elected Republican senator from Indiana, told reporters in Indianapolis.

Yet McConnell appeared to invite executive action by Trump, suggesting he should be exploring what kinds of "unilateral action" he could take -- to undo unilateral actions by Obama.

Information for this article was contributed by Brian Slodysko, Matthew Daly, Andrew Taylor and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press.

A Section on 11/10/2016

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