Republicans huddle with Trump in Florida as they plot out GOP agenda

Taking office at the start of the Biden administration, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., hasn't had that much face time with a commander in chief.

On Saturday, she'll be one of a handful of blue-state Republicans meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, in one of several planned strategy sessions between Trump and House Republicans this weekend, less than two weeks from his inauguration.

"It's going to be a good discussion," Malliotakis said Thursday.

Trump's meetings come as Republicans debate how to best advance their policy agenda. They have spent the week debating whether to pass an energy, tax and border security package along party lines in a single package -- an approach favored by House leaders and Trump -- or split it up into two bills, which Senate Republicans have endorsed.

Trump hosted members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus on Friday. Over the weekend, he will meet with other groups of lawmakers, including House GOP committee chairs, blue-state Republicans and appropriators.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters it was Trump's "idea to bring in small groups of Republicans to come together and just have fellowship together, to talk about the issues and talk about the vision that we have for the year ahead of us."

The Republican balancing act

The groups are each expected to push different priorities for the all-encompassing policy bill -- from various proposed spending cuts to regional tax and policy issues that could be difficult for the GOP to fit into its legislative package.

New York Republicans plan to bring up changes to the cap on state and local tax deductions, a limit imposed in the 2017 Republican rewrite of the tax code set to expire at the end of 2025 and affects taxpayers in high-tax states such as New York, California and New Jersey. That change helped finance other tweaks the law made to the tax code.

Nearly all of the 12 Republicans who voted against Trump's tax package came from one of those states. But now, with a one-seat majority in the House, the president-elect and Johnson can't afford any defections.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who will meet with Trump this weekend and has introduced legislation to boost the cap on the "SALT" deduction, said it's unlikely Republicans will be able to reverse the tax provision fully.

"We will work to get the number as high as we can as part of the negotiation, but you have to look at everything in totality," he said. "There's a lot of factors here, as you work through it."

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee who is scheduled to meet with Trump over the weekend, said it's important for Republicans to discuss policy as they figure out the broader strategy to move legislation through Congress.

"This is a process where you have to do everything at the same time," he said. "There are a million different conversations about every potential issue at the same time."

Republicans, he added, "don't have the luxury to say, 'I'm going to deal with that later.'"

Malliotakis, who compared the discussions and intraparty negotiations to a "Rubik's Cube," said she also plans to bring up other topics in the meeting, including New York City's new congestion pricing system and how the incoming administration can challenge it.

Democrats debate approach to new administration

In the early days of the new Congress, Democrats have taken a more cautious, less resistant approach to elements of the GOP agenda following Trump's victory and sweep of the popular vote in the presidential election.

For the first time in decades, no Democrats raised an objection to any state's electoral votes on Jan. 6, when the vice president presided over Congress's counting and certifying of the presidential election results.

Forty-eight Democrats voted with House Republicans this week on a bill that would require the detention of any illegal immigrant charged with "burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting," and a number of Democrats supported advancing the measure in the Senate.

And 45 House Democrats supported a GOP bill to sanction the International Criminal Court in response to the ICC issuing arrest warrants for top Israeli leaders over alleged war crimes.

Centrist Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., who voted for the ICC bill but against the immigration proposal, has called for Trump to lead bipartisan negotiations over changes to the SALT deduction cap.

"I disagree with President Trump strongly on most things -- to be clear, I don't pull my punches on that or anything," Ryan said. "But this is a tangible thing that he said he wants to do, and I'm going to take him at his word."

ABC News' Lauren Peller, Allison Pecorin, Katherine Faulders and Rachel Scott contributed to this report.