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(Trends Wide) — The White House and House Republicans have an agreement in principle on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and limit spending, multiple sources familiar with the negotiations told Trends Wide.
House Republican leaders planned to brief all members on the status of negotiations later in the evening, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, and both sides will review the text of the agreement overnight to ensure it aligns with the tentative deal.
The agreement in principle was reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during their phone call tonight, one of the sources said.
House Republican leaders planned to brief all members on the status of negotiations later in the evening, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, and both sides will review the text of the agreement overnight to ensure it aligns with the tentative deal.
Despite the agreement in principle, new problems could easily arise at every step of the way, and each step has the potential to take a long time, running out before the debt deadline early next month.
Selling the deal to members will not be an easy task, and strong opposition is expected from both the left and the right.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations told Trends Wide on Saturday that a provision to impose new work requirements for certain social safety net programs remained a final sticking point.
Republicans have pushed the issue, saying recipients of programs like food stamps who don’t have dependents should be forced to follow the new rules. Democrats, however, presented that idea as an attack on the poor.
McCarthy arrived at the US Capitol on Saturday morning after his top Republican negotiators, Reps. Garret Graves of Louisiana and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, worked late into the night drawing up the final details. of an agreement from the office of the president of the Chamber.
The California Republican said he would like to hold a vote on a debt-limit bill as soon as Tuesday.
Asked by Trends Wide if he was confident he could get the entire House Republican constituency behind him after a deal, McCarthy said: “Did you ever think you’d get every member to vote for him? I didn’t get all the members to vote for the first one. I did not get all the members to vote for me as president.”
Nonetheless, McCarthy maintained that he could get most of the House Republicans on board, telling Trends Wide: “I don’t think I have a problem with that.”
White House officials were generally upbeat about the state of the negotiations on Saturday afternoon. An official told Trends Wide that negotiations were ongoing and expanded on Biden’s comment Friday that they were close to reaching an agreement.
laborious progress
Spending cuts on national programs were another issue negotiators worked to resolve late Friday, but the extent to which the dispute was fully resolved is unknown.
Energy permit reform, which aims to reduce the time it takes to approve new projects, remained a high priority for Graves. The issue pits environmentalists against the oil and gas industry and has divided Democrats in Congress.
The two parties have tried to reaffirm the legislative text as they went along in an attempt to speed up that process.
“The House Republicans have a bill that we passed in the House to raise the debt ceiling. So we have a legislative text that is broad and complete. And that’s a useful baseline when you’re getting into a window like this,” McHenry said Saturday.
Little time
The pressure on negotiators is intense as the US moves ever closer to the possibility of default and the threat of economic catastrophe.
In a major development Friday that will give lawmakers more time to reach a deal and pass it, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Congress must address the debt ceiling by June 5 or the government won’t it will have sufficient funds to pay all the obligations of the nation in full. Previously, Yellen estimated that the earliest possible date a default could occur was June 1.
McHenry said Yellen’s new date “makes it clear that our schedule is very tight.”
“House Republicans asked for clarification. Chip Roy and Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds and Dan Bishop, among others, asked for clarification on Secretary Yellen’s math. She updated her calculations. Obviously, it was a good request. And I think she clears our window for us to get the deal done,” she said Saturday.
However, the debt limit predictions are not clear cut. Rather than a deadline set in stone, it’s more of a ballpark estimate, making it harder to know exactly how much time Congress has to act to avert a potential financial catastrophe.
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