Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) joined the fellas of the Ruthless Variety Progrum. He traded laughs, stories from the gym, and unpacked his travels with President Donald J. Trump. Most importantly, Senator Mullin previewed Republican priorities for the 119th Congress, detailed the budget reconciliation process, and spoke about the importance of delivering on the Trump mandate for America.

Sen. Mullin’s full interview can be found here.

On the plan when President Trump takes office:

“Communicating what he [President Trump] wants to get done in those first 100 days is so important. He started with the House, and the way I describe the House—this is no disrespect, Ilove the House, love my friends over there, I still go over there all the time, I go to at least half the House conferences, I go to a lot of the RSC meetings because I just have friends over there—is it’s thoughtful but yet right now— dysfunctional body. You can’t argue with that, they don’t. But the president started with them, visiting with them on Saturday and was communicating with them on what we need to do with reconciliation. That’s his big deal. The House has to get the budget, has to get reconciliation moving. The Senate, we have to get reconciliation and then we also have to do confirmations…

“The way he’s moving and the pace he’s moving, it’s a little odd for the Senate to move this fast, but he’s setting the pace. So, by coming here and laying out expectations and answering questions and being accountable to the senators to make sure that it’s clear communication with him and while he moves into the White House is vital and that’s what he’s going to continue to do. I mean he’s just a leader.”

On budget reconciliation with his GOP colleagues in the House and Senate:

“This has gotten blown out of proportion and I’ve said this with the media, I’m so sick of it. It’s like, ‘Hey what is it? Why is there already contention? Does this signal that there’s going to be contention between the White House and the chambers?’ like no, hold on a second, we’re two separate bodies. We’re going to deliver. It’s just the process, how do we get that done? What can the House do and what can the Senate get done? More than likely if the House can get a reconciliation passed, it’s going to be one bill, and the reason why is just real simple…

“The dynamics is different for us…

“The American people hate big bills, yeah I get that, but that’s part of negotiations. You got to have, and it has to be done, it’s not like this big omnibus bill that’s got a lot of fat in it. We’re talking about things that through reconciliation has to get done. These are President Trump’s priorities, right? So, if we have to do two, fine. We’ll do two. If we can only get one passed, then we’ll get one passed. The thing is we would like the House to move first, but the House isn’t necessarily in reconciliation. They have to move first on the budget. They don’t have to necessarily move first on reconciliation. So, if they can’t get it done, then we may move a simple package first: energy and border, but then it really puts us in a situation with taxes. The president has been very clear, he’s okay with one bill. He’s okay with two. People will say ‘well that’s not very clear.’ No, his clear point is that he just wants it done. He wants results. That’s all he wants. The difference between the two, it doesn’t matter. The bodies are going to work their will, and we’re going to eventually deliver for the president and for the American people. It’s going to get done.”

On why making President Trump’s promises permanent is so important:

“Let’s get back to why the president wanted one bill. He wanted to make his executive orders permanent. Because executive orders, as we saw four years ago, can be overturned like that and wreak havoc on the energy sector and on our border. So the president can go in on day one reinstate those hundreds of executive orders that President Biden put in place in the first 96 days he was in office that undid energy policy that the president had that released an energy economic boom where we became an exporter of crude for the first time ever and saw prices at a very reasonable, sometimes very low, price which spurred the economy along. You saw a very secure border. Right before he left office, we had the most secure border we had had in decades. So the president can go in there and enact those immediately. Then we have to have reconciliation to make them permanent, but they’re permanent for only 10 years.”

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