Negotiations between White House officials and Republican congressional officials over a deal to raise the debt limit resumed Friday just hours after House GOP leaders said it was time to “press the pause”, complaining that President Biden's team was being unreasonable and no progress could be made. achieved. made.
The sudden turnaround reflects the tough state of negotiations over a bipartisan deal to prevent a debt default that could occur as soon as June 1.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy said late Friday on Fox Business that Republicans would return to the negotiating table and bipartisan talks on the Capitol would continue into the night.
“We will return to our room tonight,” said Mr. McCarthy. “But it's very frustrating if they want to come into the room and think we're going to spend more money next year than we did this year. It's not right, and it's not going to happen.”
Hours earlier, McCarthy and one of his top advisers had declared that they were halting negotiations, saying that White House officials were refusing to budge on spending cuts. “We have to get motions from the White House, and we don't have any motions,” said Mr. McCarthy.
Adding to the whiplash were the speaker's comments on Thursday, in which he expressed optimism that negotiators could in principle reach an agreement by the end of the week.
Returning to the negotiating table Friday night underlined the growing sense of urgency to find a resolution as Congress runs out of time to avert the first default in the nation's history, and a possible economic disaster.
Once a deal is reached, it will take time to translate it into law and pass it through Congress for Mr. Biden to sign. Mr McCarthy had promised at his conference that he would give lawmakers 72 hours to read the bill before they voted.
Republicans signaled that a major source of their frustration was how tightly it limited federal spending. The bill passed by Republicans last month would raise the nation's borrowing limit into next year in exchange for freezing spending at last year's levels for a decade – which would lead to an average 18 percent cut.
The bill is a dead letter in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus said Thursday that Republicans should insist on passing the bill as is.
“No more discussions to ease it,” the group said in a tweet. “Period.”
The White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations, acknowledged that there were significant differences between the parties, including over Mr. McCarthy in limiting federal spending.
Former President Donald J. Trump also weighed in Friday on Truth Social, the social media website he founded, declaring that Republicans should not make a debt ceiling deal unless they get everything they want.
“DO NOT FOLD!!!” he wrote.
Negotiators are at odds over several issues, including the extent to which the deal is likely to include stricter labor requirements for social safety net programs — a proposal that has drawn backlash from progressive Democrats — and the length of the debt limit extension.
Conservatives in the GOP House conference have grown concerned in recent days that McCarthy will agree to a deal that freezes spending at current levels instead of last year's levels and won't lock in the kind of spending cuts they have long made. nervous.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs reporting contribution.