Talks on the debt ceiling between House and White House negotiators ended Friday night after nearly two hours.
After the meeting, Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) chief negotiator, Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), said the meeting with the White House negotiators Friday night was not a negotiation but a “candid discussion” about “realistic numbers and a realistic path forward” on something that “truly changes the trajectory of this country’s spending and debt problems.”
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In the room with Graves representing the House was Chairman of the House Financial Service Committee Patrick McHenry (R-NC), and representing the White House was Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, Steve Ricchetti, senior adviser to the president, and Louisa Terrell, director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
“At the direction of the speaker of the House, we reengaged, had a very, very candid discussion, talking about where we are, talking about where things need to be and what's reasonable and acceptable, and that's basically what's going on right now,” Graves said.
Terrell, Ricchetti, and Young declined to answer questions as they left the meeting.
McHenry reiterated that he is not confident a deal with the White House on raising the debt ceiling will come by the end of this weekend, and Friday night’s talks did not improve his confidence about it either. McCarthy has expressed that his goal was to have a framework put together by the end of the weekend so the bill would have enough time to pass out of the House and the Senate, which is on recess all next week.
Talks are over for Friday night, and the two House negotiators are going to brief McCarthy on how they went, McHenry said.
Earlier Friday, the negotiations were paused because they were “not productive,” Graves said. The two congressmen declined to delve into specifics about what specifically they are at an impasse on and what is holding up negotiations.
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McCarthy said earlier in the day that whatever debt ceiling compromise comes together, they "have to spend less than we spent the year before."
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the "X-date" for the country defaulting on its debt is June 1, giving negotiators less than two weeks to come to a deal and pass it out of both chambers.