A bipartisan agreement to raise the U.S. debt ceiling cleared the first major legislative hurdle in a House committee on Tuesday, as lawmakers scrambled votes to support the agreement and avert default.
The White House and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker, struck a deal over the weekend that would suspend the debt ceiling until after the next presidential election in 2024. It limits discretionary spending for two years, tightens requirements for some social programs, and cuts Department of Revenue funding. Ministry of Interior and speeds up the issuance of permits for mega energy and infrastructure projects.
A slim majority of members of the powerful House Regulations Committee advanced the bill late by a 7-6 margin on Tuesday, setting the stage for a make-or-break vote in the House as quickly as possible on Wednesday.
The compromise would need to pass both the House and Senate if it is to become law before next week. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the federal government will run out of money on June 5 if the debt ceiling is not raised in time.
Both the White House and McCarthy expressed optimism that both houses of Congress would pass their deal. But a growing number of lawmakers from both parties have opposed the deal, raising the stakes for what could be a difficult House vote.
And earlier on Tuesday, hawkish Republican lawmakers vowed to “do everything they can” to prevent the bill from being signed into law.
Scott Perry, the right-wing congressman from Pennsylvania who heads the House Freedom Caucus, said McCarthy “completely failed to deliver” on his mandate to “stick the line” in negotiations with the White House.
Perry and other hardliners defended McCarthy’s opening gambit in the negotiations — the Reduce, Save, and Grow Act — that would have raised the debt ceiling into next year with sharp spending cuts and rolled back some of President Joe Biden’s biggest policies like student loan debt. forgiveness.
And Perry said, standing in front of 10 fellow Republicans who participated in his attack on the deal: “These members and others will totally oppose the deal and we will do everything in our power to stop it and end it now.”
Perry stops short of calling for McCarthy to lose his job over the deal, but his comments put pressure on the Speaker of the House as he seeks to drum up support.
Republicans control the House of Representatives by a very small margin. With more than a dozen party members publicly announcing they would vote against the deal, McCarthy must count on a critical mass of support from House Democrats to get the bill through.
Many of McCarthy’s former critics praised the lawmaker – who was elected president in January despite strong opposition from members of his own party – for his handling of the debt ceiling issue.
But several members of the Freedom Caucus threatened to invoke a “motion of eviction”, or vote of no confidence, in McCarthy if he did not respond to their calls to abandon the deal.
If the debt ceiling becomes law, “then we’re going to have to regroup and figure out the whole leadership order again,” Chip Roy, the Texas Republican congressman, told radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday.
It remains unclear how many Democrats will support the compromise deal when it comes to a vote on the House floor. Many progressive lawmakers have questioned whether Biden is giving too much to the Republicans in the talks.
Pramila Jayapal, the House Democrat who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said her group was counting votes before deciding whether to take an “official stand.” Leaders of the New Democratic Alliance, a more centrist group of Democratic lawmakers, issued a statement Monday encouraging their members to support the deal.
The Congressional Budget Office, a government agency that analyzes the impact of legislation on lawmakers, said late Tuesday that the deal would reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, compared to current projections. While conservative opponents of the deal will see that number as too small, it could provide comfort to moderate and working Republicans who tend to support the agreement.
Additional reporting by Colby Smith