‘We Need to Start Passing Legislation,’ Tennessee U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett Says

U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) said he had a “spirited” conversation with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) this week, advocating for Republicans to return to D.C. and work on passing President Donald Trump’s agenda into law.

The U.S. House has been in recess since April 11 and is scheduled to resume session on Monday, just two days before the 100th day of the Trump administration.

Noting how a Democratic-controlled House and split U.S. Senate managed to send 11 bills to former President Joe Biden’s desk within his first 100 days in office, Burchett said Republicans need to begin passing bills and make sure votes on such legislation are made public so the American people knows where their representatives stand on different issues.

“We need to start passing legislation, regardless if it’s going to pass in the Senate or not, because they need to vote it up or down. They need to agree to quit with all of the hearings and let America know where we stand on these issues. Let America know their votes,” Burchett said on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

“There are a lot of Republicans in the House who do not want to vote on these things. They want to come home to the Reagan Day dinners, to the ladies of Williamson County and say, ‘I’m as conservative as anybody. I’m for this, I’m for that,’ but dad gummit, they don’t want to vote on it. We should make them vote on it so you, the American people, know. It’s going to be painful, but make them vote on it,” Burchett added.

Burchett further said lawmakers need to stop getting “caught up” in bills’ budgetary impacts as part of the effort to codify Trump’s agenda into law, which he explained widely focuses on downsizing government.

“I had a very spirited conversation with the speaker yesterday and I told him, we have got to start producing. We get too caught up on the score or what [the bills] cost or whatever. We don’t need all that information. We know that we’re going to save money. Let’s pass the bill and then see the consequences. It’s not one of these, ‘Let’s pass it so we know what’s in it.’ Let’s pass it, we know what’s in it, and then it’s going to show us just how bad things were,” Burchett explained.

“I think that’s where we need to go with it and…I think America needs to know, and they deserve to know,” Burchett added.

https://twitter.com/michaelpleahy/status/1915769166189248918

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tim Burchett” by Tim Burchett.