Republicans to keep slim majority in US House with 220 seats

According to Edison Research on Wednesday (Dec4), Republicans in the United States House of Representatives are expected to hold a220-215 majority in the upcoming session of Congress next month. This came after Democrats gained a seat in the US state of California.

This slim majority means there will be very little room for GOP lawmakers to vote against reconciliation bills. The narrow majority will also determine how sweeping the policy proposals of Republicans will be.

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The US President-elect Donald Trump's upcoming administration and the House Republicansare planning to use a complicated budget reconciliation process to tackle issues like immigration and energy. Both of these issues will be covered in a single bill and the issue of taxes will be covered next year in a separate bill. However, the specifics of this measure or how they will impact policies are not clear yet.

Reconciliation is typicallyused when one party controls the White House, Senate, and the House.

In 2017, Republicans held unified control of Congress and the White House with 241 House seats. The margin was wider than they will have in the next term.

South Dakota Senator John Thune, who is going to be majority leader in January 2025 when Trump starts his second term in the White House, said Republicans are working through “how best to maximize the opportunity we have through reconciliation to achieve a lot of the president’s and our objectives and things that he campaigned on.”

“And, you know, there is the tax piece, but we’ve got until the end of the year to do that. So the question is how do we execute on using the opportunity of reconciliation,” Thune added, in a statement, according to the Washington State Standard.

“Reconciliation is extremely complex, as those of us who have been through it before know,” said Maine Senator Susan Collins.

(With inputs from agencies)