First posted on Instagram
The House Freedom Caucus has put Republican congressional leadership on notice, demanding an aggressive final legislative push in the two months before Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress in January.
In a letter dated November 9, the caucus's board wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune that "we have an enormous amount of unfinished business to preserve and protect the Republic from an incoming majority party hell-bent on radically changing it," urging the leaders to "deny them every legislative leverage point possible" and to "hold the line and finish the work."
At the top of the list is a new budget reconciliation package: at least $1 trillion in spending reductions to more than offset tax relief and other spending, plus funding to modernize defense — missiles, boats, drones and space capabilities.
The caucus also demands that Congress permanently codify President Donald Trump's border security policies, including legislation banning sanctuary cities — pointing to H.R. 9773 and H.R. 7640, which it says have cleared the House Judiciary Committee — and pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and photo identification to cast a ballot. The House passed the bill three times in 2026; each time it died in the Senate, where the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster were never there.
The letter also calls for banning stock trading by members of Congress, advancing congressional term limits, confirming as many of President Trump's nominees as possible before January, and passing clean government funding bills without additional policy provisions.
The demands come after the Democrats' sweeping November 3 midterm wins, which handed them the House and the Senate and ended the Republican trifecta. Republican leadership elections are set for Tuesday, November 10.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, in a video posted on Monday, put it bluntly: "We need to be taking away the leverage points of the Democrats. We've got like 45 days left, and we can finish what we started."