Speaker Kevin McCarthy is vowing to publicly unveil details of his party’s debt limit plan later Wednesday — a critical step forward in a months-long standoff with President Joe Biden.

The California Republican also promised the House GOP would approve the bill by next week, a task that’s likely to prove complicated given the internal frustration about the path forward aired during a closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday.

“Do they think this is right, that the president refuses to even negotiate or talk?” McCarthy said of Biden’s disinterest in coming to the table for negotiations as Republicans insist on spending cuts in exchange for voting to avoid an economically catastrophic debt default.

The president and speaker haven’t communicated on the looming debt crisis since February, though Biden is set to deliver his own new pushback to McCarthy later on Wednesday. The White House has instead repeatedly dinged McCarthy’s GOP for delaying a release of a budget proposal that would theoretically outline the Republican goals for slashing the federal deficit; that budget plan now appears indefinitely on ice as the speaker presses ahead toward passage of his broader debt-limit offer.

McCarthy said he would use passage of his proposal, which is likely to include deregulatory and energy moves beyond spending cuts, to keep pushing for a sit-down with Biden. He’s slated to deliver a floor speech later Wednesday that could shed more light on specific details in the package he’s crafting, according to a senior Republican familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

McCarthy has proposed having Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) sponsor the debt ceiling text, according to two GOP sources, a possible sign the speaker is looking to smooth over recent tensions between him and the Budget Committee chair.

That opening GOP bid on the debt limit could hardly come at a more urgent time, as budget forecasters predict the nation could hit its borrowing limit earlier than expected — as soon as June.

But it’s doomed in the Senate, where Democrats have wholly rejected the GOP’s slate of proposals. And McCarthy didn’t shrink from blasting the upper chamber on Wednesday for what he portrayed as legislative laziness.

The Senate “named March maple syrup month and then yesterday they congratulated UConn on winning the national championship. It’d be interesting if the Senate ever does anything,” the speaker said.

Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.