Attention will turn to the Senate this week as the standoff over raising the debt ceiling continues, with pressure mounting on the upper chamber to act after House Republicans cleared a bill that would raise the borrowing limit and implement spending cuts.
The House GOP bill — which marked the conference’s opening salvo in debt limit negotiations — put the ball in the Senate’s court as the stalemate over the borrowing limit drags on. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said the measure is “dead on arrival,” but House Republicans are now pushing the chamber to respond to their legislative offer.
That pressure will likely increase as senators return to the chamber on Monday. The House is out of session this week.
Also this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a hearing on Supreme Court ethics reform following revelations regarding Justice Clarence Thomas. And, Schumer may hold a vote on a bill condemning former President Trump’s call to defund the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Senate faces pressure on debt limit
House Republicans are upping the pressure on the Senate to act after the conference narrowly passed their debt limit and spending cuts bill last week.
The legislation — supported only by GOP lawmakers — would raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024, whichever comes first, and it lays out $4.8 trillion worth of spending cuts. Republicans are hoping the measure pulls President Biden to the negotiating table, despite the White House consistently saying it will only pass a “clean” debt ceiling increase — meaning one without any conditions.
Biden, however, has said he will not negotiate over the borrowing limit. Last week, the president said is “happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended,” calling it “not negotiable.”
But last week’s bill passage is also increasing pressure on the Senate to either take up the House GOP legislation — which is unlikely amid Democratic opposition — or put out their own offer in the high-stakes debate.
“Our recommendation is, we passed it through the House, take it up in the Senate and pass it,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“We just passed a bill that addresses the debt ceiling. And for all that we hear from our Senate friends, Martha, they’ve yet to pass anything. If they got a better idea, I want to see that bill and tell them to pass it through the Senate,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
Last week, shortly after the House GOP bill passed, McCarthy zeroed in on the Senate.
“Sen. Schumer, if he thinks he’s got a plan, put it on the floor, see if you can pass it, and then we can go to conference,” he said. “But now, the president can no longer put this economy in jeopardy. We lifted the debt limit; we’ve sent it to the Senate; we’ve done our job. The only body in here that’s done theirs.”
“The Senate, I gotta give ‘em credit, they did name March maple syrup month. And they have thanked UConn, and congratulated them for their basketball win. But they’ve done nothing when it comes to the economy or the debt limit,” he added.
Senate Democrats have not shown any appetite for the House GOP bill. Schumer last week called it “dead on arrival,” and has called for a “clean” debt limit increase. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Sunday criticized the spending cuts in the measure.
Republicans over the weekend continued to press Biden to join McCarthy in discussions, despite the White House consistently saying it will not negotiate over the debt limit.
“I think what we ought to be doing in the Senate is, we ought to be standing up and backing up the House Republicans,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told “Sunday Morning Futures” in an interview. “The House Republicans are showing leadership right now. And Senate Republicans should stand shoulder to shoulder with the House and say: Joe Biden, come to the table.”
But as congressional Democrats and the White House remain united in opposition to the House GOP bill, and Republicans reject the notion of a “clean” debt ceiling increase, some liberal lawmakers are eyeing an escape hatch to prevent the U.S. from falling off the fiscal cliff: a McConnell-Biden deal.
McConnell worked with Biden to prevent a national default in 2011 and again in 2021. As this summer’s default deadline inches closer, some Democrats are banking on the Kentucky Republican emerging to help shepherd through a deal to avoid economic catastrophe.
Last week, however, before the House cleared their bill, McConnell told reporters “until [Biden] and the Speaker of the House reach an agreement, we’ll be at a standoff.”
“Now it’s up to McConnell to, sort of, pick up the baton,” Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), the chair of the center-left New Democrat Coalition, told reporters in her office on Friday.
“He’s been through this probably more times than anyone else at the table if you think about it, well except President Biden,” Kuster added, referring to McConnell. “And he’s the one that, you know, Wall Street CEOs and economics are gonna be ringing his phone off the hook, we need an adult in the room for this conversation. And then I think it’ll be McConnell, Schumer, the White House, Hakeem will obviously be a part of that. I personally don’t see the House bill as even being a framework that they’ll use. I mean I just, I think the House bill was sort of a wish list.”
Kuster predicted “I think we’ll see movement, even though people won’t be in Washington in the next 10 days I think that there will be a lot going on in the Senate. And then where I expect we’ll come back in is that ultimately, there will be an agreement. McConnell, Schumer, Biden, Hakeem Jeffries, that will come back and.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) sounded a similar note on Sunday, telling ABC’s “Face the Nation” in an interview “I think the President will sit down with Senator McConnell, he knows that we can’t default.”
Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearing on Supreme Court ethics reform
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing Tuesday focused on Supreme Court ethics, after reports by ProPublica revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas went on luxury trips with and paid for by conservative billionaire donor Harlan Crow.
The hearing — scheduled to 10 a.m. eastern time — is expected to “examine the need for enforceable ethics reforms for the Supreme Court, following numerous revelations of Justices’ conduct that has fallen short of the ethical standards the American people expect from public servants,” according to the panel.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) invited Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to testify at the hearing, which he declined last week. In a letter to Durbin, Roberts said “I must respectfully decline your invitation,” noting that a chief justice testifying before the panel is “exceedingly rare.”
Roberts attached a “Statement of Ethics Principles and Practices” to his response, which he said “all of the current Members of the Supreme Court subscribe” to.
The hearing comes amid calls from members of Congress for Thomas to resign or be impeached following the revelations by ProPublica.
Potential vote on resolution condemning Trump’s call to defund FBI, DOJ
Schumer this week will “probably” make a unanimous consent attempt to consider a resolution condemning Trump’s call to defund the FBI and DOJ, a Schumer aide told The Hill.
In a letter to Senate Democrats last month, Schumer said he planned to offer a resolution “rejecting the former President’s call to ‘defund’ the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
In a social media post following his indictment in Manhattan, Trump urged congressional Republicans to “DEFUND THE DOJ AND FBI UNTIL THEY COME TO THEIR SENSES,” accusing Democrats of weaponizing law enforcement. A Senate Republican aide told The Hill at the time that Trump’s call would not get any traction in the upper chamber.
The resolution, according to Schumer’s letter, would state that the Senate “recognizes and appreciates the dedication and devotion” of those working in law enforcement agencies, note that that the chamber condemns calls to defund the DOJ and FBI, and say the body “rejects partisan attempts” by Trump and his allies “to degrade public trust in Federal law enforcement agencies for attempted political or legal benefit.”
“Senators from across the political spectrum and of both political parties should denounce such attempts by the former President and his allies to degrade public trust in our federal law enforcement agencies,” Schumer wrote. “The Senate must recommit that the Untied States is a nation of laws.”
“As free people, we rely on the necessary and professional work of our federal law enforcement agencies to promote the safety and general welfare of our country,” he added.
Alex Bolton contributed.