Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) confirmed he would attend a meeting with President Joe Biden and congressional leaders to discuss the debt ceiling crisis next week, but he maintained that a solution lies only between the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“The message to the president is pretty clear: You got a choice between accepting the House bill or entering into a discussion, which the speaker’s been trying to have with the president for some time,” McConnell said on Tuesday. “There is no solution in the Senate … The president and the speaker need to reach an agreement to get us past this impasse. That’s my message going down to the White House meeting.”
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McConnell sidestepped questions on what specific legislation he would support to address the debt ceiling crisis, reiterating that Senate Republicans would follow the lead of McCarthy in the House. Although he believes the debt limit package the House passed last week “makes a lot of sense,” McConnell said it’s up to both Biden and McCarthy to come to an agreement that can be brought to the Senate floor.
“I’m for the speaker, as I’ve said repeatedly, reaching an agreement with the president to deal with the debt,” he said. “What I’m convinced of is that the ultimate solution will be between the Republican House and the president.”
McConnell’s comments come as government leaders scramble to avoid a default on the country’s loans after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen issued a warning that Congress has just under a month until the United States will be unable to make payments if lawmakers don’t take action.
In response, Biden called the so-called “Big Four” — that is, McCarthy, McConnell, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — on Monday afternoon to schedule a meeting to discuss the debt ceiling, which is set to take place on May 9. Both Democratic leaders will be in attendance as well as McCarthy, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
The meeting will mark the first time McCarthy and Biden have met to discuss the debt ceiling since Feb. 1.
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Negotiations on the debt ceiling have long remained stalled inside the halls of Congress as both parties have refused to budge in order to come to a compromise. House Republicans passed a bill last week that would raise the debt ceiling in exchange for cuts to government spending, but Senate Democrats have called those proposals “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber.
Schumer did move ahead with placing two competing debt limit bills on the Senate calendar, including one that would suspend the debt limit through 2024 as well as the GOP-led debt limit package that already passed the House. It’s not yet clear whether either bill will come to the floor for a vote, and Schumer said a decision would come after leaders meet with Biden next week.