Congressional Republicans on Monday were pushing right-wing lawmakers to get behind a compromise to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending restrictions — as the White House wrangled progressives.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s vote counters were making calls on the Memorial Day holiday to stem defections from GOP conservatives who wanted far more cuts and a much smaller increase in the debt limit.
On the other end of the political spectrum, President Joe Biden’s allies are pushing liberals to swallow painful concessions on social programs in exchange for a two-year reprieve on the debt.
McCarthy admitted the agreement required concessions from both sides, dashing hopes from the far-right Freedom Caucus that he would hold out for major cuts in spending.
“In divided government, that’s where we end up. I think it’s a very positive bill,” McCarthy said.
The first big test will come Tuesday in the House Rules Committee, a GOP-run panel that must move the bill forward to a floor vote by as early as Wednesday.
Three conservative hard-liners sit on the committee, which is stacked with a 9-4 Republican majority, meaning it could provide an early indication of possible roadblocks to come.
A handful of right wingers have already said they will vote against the bill, but the revolt seemed to be falling short of past rebellions.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is working to line up progressives behind the bill, which Biden has touted as a responsible path to defang Republican threats to plunge the nation into default.
“The agreement prevents the worst possible crisis, a default, for the first time in our nation’s history,” the president said.
The package must also clear the Senate, where any single senator could stall progress for several days.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has threatened to do just that in hopes of holding the line on the nation’s rising debt, all of which is needed to pay for commitments already made by Congress on both parties’ watch.
But powerful Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has backed the bill, meaning it has a good chance of winning 60 votes to break a conservative filibuster attempt.
Final passage of the bill might not happen until the weekend, forcing the Treasury to juggle Uncle Sam’s cash to pay the nation’s bills for another few hours or days.
The deal suspends the debt ceiling until early 2025, effectively taking it out of the headlines until after next year’s presidential election.
The agreement would keep non-defense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year and increase it by 1% the following year.
For the next fiscal year, the bill matches Biden’s proposed defense budget of $886 billion.
It toughens work requirements for food stamps and would rescind about $30 billion in unspent coronavirus relief money. The bill cuts a chunk of the money allocated to the IRS to hunt down wealthy tax cheats.