By Haley Talbot, Aileen Graef, Sarah Ferris, Morgan Rimmer and Lauren Fox, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump and his GOP allies in Congress have recently shared some of the first details of their ambitious agenda — sweeping tax cuts, border security and raising the debt limit — which they hope to muscle through in the first 100 days of the president-elect’s term.

And that’s all with one of the smallest House majorities in history.

Speaking after House Republicans huddled for a weekend policy and leadership retreat, Speaker Mike Johnson said Trump has pushed for a single bill.

“At the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, ‘one big, beautiful bill.’ And there’s a lot of merit to that … because there are so many elements to it, and it will give us a little bit more time to negotiate that and get it right,” Johnson told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

It will be a huge undertaking, especially with the slim GOP margin and the ambitious timeline of having the bill on Trump’s desk by the end of April.

Republicans are looking at passing the bill using the budget process known on Capitol Hill as reconciliation, which allows bills to be approved by a simple majority (51 votes) in the Senate. But approving each reconciliation bill requires two steps and a marathon series of votes, and the legislation must pass muster with strict budget rules in the Senate.

Typically, reconciliation bills are attempted once a year during single-party rule in Congress.

GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune had previously said that the plan was to put forward two separate reconciliation packages — another extremely difficult task given the small margins in both chambers.

“Our other early priority — and another reason why the schedule will be particularly aggressive in the first 100 days — is passing a reconciliation package with a once-in-a-generation investment in border security and immigration enforcement,” Thune said in a December floor speech in which he laid out legislative priorities for 2025.

“And, of course, continuing work on our reconciliation package to expand the tax relief Republicans delivered for Americans during the first Trump administration,” he added.

If the single, combined bill does pass the House and make it to the Senate, Thune has said he would have to enact much of Trump’s agenda under reconciliation. But he believes measures such as border security could be passed under regular order with support from Democrats.

“It would be ideal if we could figure out a way to do things at the 60-vote threshold. And there are a number of things we will. We think that a generational investment in the border is necessary, given where we are, after the last four years of what I think is a very failed Biden-Harris border policy,” he said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

That’s in contrast with the idea of doing one sweeping reconciliation package. And Thune said earlier in the same interview that to help Trump “achieve success” in passing his agenda, he will have to help Trump understand what can be done within the limits of how the Senate functions.

“We want to get to the same destination, but I think at times, there will be differences in how we get there. And understanding the unique aspects of how the Senate operates is something that I’m going to have to be able to share and convey to the president and help him understand … what the contours are, what we can accomplish here in the Senate,” he said.

Many senators have argued that jump-starting Trump’s term with a border bill — packed with widely popular GOP ideas — is a better move politically than risking a dragged-out tax battle.

But Republican House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith had warned that was the “wrong strategy,” telling CNN’s Dana Bash in December that it would be incredibly difficult to get both bills across the finish line, endangering the 2017 tax cuts, set to expire this year, in the process.

“I believe that the first reconciliation bill needs to be a comprehensive reconciliation bill that addresses the expiring tax provisions. It also addresses energy, the border, immigration, and also some spending cuts,” Smith said on CNN’s “Inside Politics.”

“I think that that’s what is necessary in order to get the necessary votes to thread the needle, to move it over to the United States Senate,” he said.

He added, “Failure is not an option.”

GOP Rep. Don Bacon admitted this path would not be easy.

“Nothing’s easy — reconciliation with three seats — a three-seat majority. I do think the border people know it’s just got to get done. It will be a little more challenging for taxes, but we got to do it,” he said Friday.

Dramatic speaker’s vote signals challenges ahead

Johnson told CNN on Friday that Trump’s endorsement was “a big factor” in the Louisiana Republican winning his bid to retain the speaker’s gavel.

“President Trump is … certainly the most powerful president of the modern era, maybe of all of American history,” Johnson said. “His voice and his influence are of singular influence. And I’m grateful to have his support, humbled by it. And I think that was a big factor.”

In addition to the president-elect talking to the holdouts directly, key Republicans huddled with Johnson and tried to clear the air about past grievances while charting a path forward, particularly when it comes to the looming reconciliation fights.

“People of good faith looked one another in the eye and made some commitments to one another,” one GOP lawmaker said of the private conversations.

A group of House Republicans who had been skeptical of Johnson released a letter outlining a list of demands they want him to take up.

The 11 House Republicans called on Johnson to add session days to the House calendar; ensure that any reconciliation package includes significant spending cuts; and stop putting bills on the floor that rely heavily on Democratic support or ahead of the 72 hours members are allotted to review legislation.

“Today we voted for Mike Johnson for Speaker of the House because of our steadfast support of President Trump and to ensure the timely certification of his electors,” the lawmakers wrote. “We did this despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s track record over the last 15 months.”

Listing out their legislative priorities, the lawmakers said Johnson has “zero room for error.”

Trump had hoped to address the debt ceiling now in part so it wouldn’t affect the ambitious agenda he wants to get through Congress next year. Johnson’s move to tie the debt limit increase to the reconciliation package is likely to anger the same hardline conservatives who demanded a single bill.

Johnson noted in his Fox interview Sunday that getting Republicans to accept the inclusion of the debt limit will be difficult. “A a lot of moving pieces, a lot of things to negotiate, a lot of opinions on all that,” Johnson said. “So we’ll be working long, long hours with whiteboards making sure every Republican is on board.”

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