WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that he and Senate leaders are working in tandem to advance President Donald Trump’s America-first agenda. After meeting with Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the White House on Tuesday, Johnson said the House plans to vote on two reintroduced bills this week that failed in last year’s Congress: the Fix our Forests Act and the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act.

What You Need To Know

  • House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that he and Senate leaders are working in tandem to advance President Donald Trump’s America-first agenda

  • Johnson and other House leaders met with President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance at the White House on Tuesday

  • He said the House plans to vote on two reintroduced bills this week that failed in last year’s Congress: The Fix our Forests Act and the Born Alive Survivors Protection Act

  • “We’re working very closely and in close coordination with the White House because this is an America-first agenda," Johnson said Wednesday

“The reason this is so important is because we see what happened in California,” Johnson said of the Fix our Forests Act, which was reintroduced in the House last week by Reps. Scott Peters, D-Calif., and Bruce Westerman, R-Ark.

The bill is designed to reduce the intensity of catastrophic wildfires and to build fire-safety defenses for communities in high-risk areas.

Johnson blamed California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for mismanagement that led to a series of wildfires earlier this month that destroyed at least 14,000 structures and killed 28 people. 

“This is a return to common sense, and that’s the theme that President Trump will be echoing over and over, and we will as well,” Johnson said.

The Sierra Club, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Environment America and dozens of other environmental groups oppose the Fix our Forests Act, saying it undermines environmental protections, puts forests more at risk for logging and prevents citizens from holding federal agencies accountable. 

Last year, former President Joe Biden said he strongly opposed the bill because it would speed up forest-thinning on national lands.

This week, the House also plans to vote on the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act that failed in the House last year. The bill would ensure that a child who is born alive during an attempted abortion be kept alive. 

The American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday it opposes the legislation, saying it “is a deliberately misleading anti-abortion bill which would target abortion providers and interfere with safe and essential health care.”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., called the bill “another step in the Republican plan to criminalize abortion nationwide,” in a statement urging members of the House Judiciary Committee to reject it. He said it a dangerous intrusion into medical decision-making that may endanger infants.

“We’re working very closely and in close coordination with the White House because this is an America-first agenda that takes both of those branches of government to work in tandem,” Johnson said. “What [President Trump] is doing is kickstarting what will ultimately be our legislative agenda, and you’re going to begin to see that.”

Johnson said the Laken Riley Act, which passed the House earlier this week and the Senate on Monday, will be the first of many bills sent to the president for his signature. The bill requires the mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants who have been charged with theft in the United States. 

“There’ll be a lot of activity in the days ahead,” Johnson said.