Biden hails debt ceiling deal and urges lawmakers to pass agreement
Joe Biden has said a bipartisan deal to raise the $31.4tn US debt ceiling and avoid a default is ready to move to Congress and urged lawmakers to pass the agreement he struck with Kevin McCarthy.
“This is a deal that’s good news for ... the American people,” the president said at the White House on Sunday night after a call with McCarthy to put the final touches to a tentative deal struck the previous day. “It takes the threat of catastrophic default off the table, protects our hard-earned and historic economic recovery,” he said.
“I strongly urge both chambers to pass that agreement,” Biden said, adding he believed the House speaker negotiated in good faith and expected him to have the necessary votes for the 99-page bill to pass. Asian shares and US stock futures rose on Monday, buoyed by news of an agreement.
By Monday morning, lawmakers had been presented with the details of the deal, with the aim of putting a bill to a vote as early as Wednesday in the House, followed by the Senate later in the week or this weekend, and getting it passed before 5 June, thus avoiding a catastrophic and unprecedented default.
On Monday, Biden, the first lady, Jill Biden, the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, and the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, will attend ceremonies at Arlington national cemetery just outside Washington, DC, to mark Memorial Day, a federal holiday reserved for honoring and mourning fallen US military personnel.
Both the House and Senate are expected to return on Tuesday, after Memorial Day.
Once the bill reaches the Senate, where Democrats have the majority, the pace of action will largely depend on whether any senators try to hold up the bill, possibly with amendment votes. That could tie up the legislation for a few days.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York warned on Sunday that “due to the time it may take to process the legislation in the Senate without cooperation, senators should prepare for potential Friday and weekend votes.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell applauded the agreement and called on the Senate to act swiftly to pass it without unnecessary delay once it has gone through the House. “Today’s agreement makes urgent progress toward preserving our nation’s full faith and credit and a much-needed step toward getting its financial house in order,” he said.
Chip Roy, a prominent member of the Republican hardline Freedom Caucus, tweeted that he would try to prevent the agreement from passing the House but McCarthy dismissed threats of opposition within his own party, saying “over 95%” of House Republicans were “overwhelmingly excited” about the deal.
“This is a good strong bill that a majority of Republicans will vote for,” the California Republican said. “You’re going to have Republicans and Democrats be able to move this to the president.”
Earlier Biden told reporters when arriving back at the White House, after attending the high school graduation of one of his granddaughters in Delaware, that there were no sticking points left between him and McCarthy. When asked if he was confident the deal would be voted through Congress and reach his desk, he replied “yes”.
But late on Sunday afternoon, lawmakers in the House and Senate were reportedly on calls with congressional leaders, expressing frustrations at a compromise deal, as efforts began in earnest to sell the package and win passage of the legislation this week.
Biden and McCarthy had held a 90minute phone call earlier on Saturday evening to discuss the deal before the outline agreement was first announced that night, with the Democratic US president joining the call from the Camp David retreat and the Republican speaker in the nation’s capital.
Biden had said after that: “The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want. That’s the responsibility of governing,” while calling the pact “an important step forward”.
McCarthy commands a five-seat majority in the Republican-controlled House but his far-right wing members are expected to balk at spending cuts that they deem not deep enough, while progressives may be more likely to choke down cuts and benefits restrictions that they loathe in order to pass the deal.
Earlier on Sunday morning, McCarthy boasted on Fox News Sunday that “there’s not one thing in the bill for Democrats” even though Biden achieved his fundamental goal of persuading the Republican to agree to a debt ceiling increase. McCarthy predicted House GOP members will support the deal.
McCarthy added at the press conference later: “We are going to put the bill on the [House] floor in 72 hours and pass it.”
To reduce spending, as Republicans had insisted, the package includes a two-year budget deal that would hold spending flat for 2024 and impose limits for 2025. That’s in exchange for raising the debt limit for two years, until after the next election.
It also expands some work requirements for certain food-stamp recipients and tweaks an environmental law to try to streamline reviews to build new energy projects.
The Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said the US could default on its debt obligations by 5 June if lawmakers do not act in time to raise the federal debt ceiling. A default would shake financial markets and send the US into a deep recession.
The House minority leader and Democratic New York representative Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter: “I am thankful to President Biden for his leadership in averting a devastating default.”
The Washington state Democratic representative, Pramila Jayapal, chair of the congressional progressive caucus, told CNN’s State of the Union show on Sunday morning that she did not yet know if she would vote for the deal as she needed to see “the exact legislative text”.
She said the notion of tightening conditions for hungry families to claim food stamps was “absolutely terrible policy”.
But she warned: “The American people have to understand that we are on the brink of default” after House Republicans forced a negotiation, while further warning that Republicans want to cut “basic spending on things like healthcare, education, child care, all of the things you care about”.
The South Dakota Republican congressman, Dusty Johnson, who was involved in the behind-the-scenes negotiations prior to the leaders agreeing, cheered “a fantastic deal” on Sunday morning, also talking to CNN.
Johnson noted he is the leader of the mainstream Republican caucus in the House and said he believes there are Freedom Caucus members who will vote for it, though maybe not the most “colorful” ones.
Republicans control the House by 222-213, while Democrats control the Senate by 51-49. These margins mean that moderates from both sides will have to support the bill, as any compromise will almost definitely lose the support of the far-left and far-right wings of each party.
To win the Speaker’s gavel, McCarthy agreed to enable any single member to call for a vote to unseat him, which could lead to his ousting if he seeks to work with Democrats. On Sunday, he said he was “not at all” worried that could happen.
Some hardline Republicans balked at McCarthy cooperating with the White House.
“If Speaker’s negotiators bring back in substance a clean debt limit increase … one so large that it even protects Biden from the issue in the presidential [election] … it’s war,” representative Dan Bishop, a member of the Freedom Caucus, tweeted.
The deal does just that, sources briefed on it said.
The deal would boost spending on the military and veterans’ care, and cap it for many discretionary domestic programs, according to sources familiar with talks. But Republicans and Democrats will need to debate, as the deal doesn’t specify them.