After days of negotiations between the White House and Republicans, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Joe Biden finally came to an agreement, resulting in the 99-page “Fiscal Responsibility Act” that seeks to raise the debt ceiling while implementing a number of spending cuts.
As expected, no one emerged from the negotiating table with everything they wanted, and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have already expressed opposition to the proposal. But after several marathon nights of talks between Biden’s and McCarthy’s teams, the work is just now beginning to get a majority of both parties on board in order to get the legislation passed through the House.
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A number of progressive Democrats and hard-line Republicans are unhappy with the deal, arguing too much was conceded to the other side. In an attempt to win over some of the most stubborn members, leaders of both parties are seeking to seize the narrative by painting themselves as the winner.
“The agreement also represents a compromise, which means no one got everything they want. But that’s the responsibility of governing,” Biden said on Sunday. “It also protects key priorities and accomplishments and values that congressional Democrats and I have fought long for — long and hard for.”
The White House also sent House Democrats a two-page memo detailing the debt limit bill and all of the policies that Biden was able to preserve as part of the agreement. One of the top wins Biden was able to secure was keeping nondefense spending at 2023 levels despite pushes from Republicans to return to 2022 levels over the next year.
Biden also touted provisions that keep welfare program spending at similar levels, including no changes to eligibility for Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for veterans or those who are homeless, according to the memo.
The president also protected key legislative priorities previously passed in his Inflation Reduction Act, including provisions aimed toward environmental justice investments and permitting reform. Those issues were a major holdout for negotiators, causing talks to drag on for days.
Meanwhile, McCarthy is touting the bill as a win for Republicans — pointing to the deal itself as a win after Biden refused for months to enter into negotiations. Biden pushed back on assertions that he dropped his previous pledge not to negotiate over the debt ceiling, noting the talks only focused on spending cuts.
“That’s what we are negotiating in order to get to them deciding that they’re going to go along with a new debt ceiling, meaning that it’s not attached. Something totally different attached that wasn’t attached before,” Biden said. “But if you want to try to make it look like I made some compromise on the debt ceiling, I didn’t. I made a compromise on the budget.”
Instead, McCarthy has painted the deal as a Republican restoration of “fiscal sanity” that will stop inflationary spending and rein in government overreach, according to a one-pager sent to Republicans over the weekend.
McCarthy touted “consequential reforms” to welfare programs such as SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which includes modifications to work requirements — another key holdout issue that delayed a final agreement.
The deal would also allow Republicans to rein in a handful of Biden’s key legislative wins by restarting student loan payments and slashing funds from Biden’s proposed budget to hire more IRS agents in the next fiscal year. The proposal also seeks to preserve funding for veterans programs and defense priorities while ensuring there are no cuts to Social Security or Medicare.
Overall, McCarthy is aiming to paint the deal as a total win for Republicans that reverses much of what Democrats have accomplished during the first two years of the Biden administration.
“After two years in which Democrats created a culture of paying people not to work and attacking American energy production, these consequential reforms will turn our broken society into a productive society,” McCarthy wrote in an op-ed over the weekend. “Only because of Republicans’ resolve did we achieve this transformative change to how Washington operates. We are just 140 days into this Republican majority, and we’re just getting started.”
However, McCarthy may have his work cut out for him as several GOP members have already vowed to vote no on the legislation, including some on the Rules Committee who could determine whether the bill even comes to the floor for a vote.
At least 16 House Republicans have come out against the deal so far. They include Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Chip Roy (R-TX), who both sit on the Rules Committee and have indicated they’ll vote against advancing it to the floor. Committee member Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has also objected to the bill, but it remains unclear whether he’ll vote against bringing it to the floor.
Other GOP holdouts include Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Bob Good (R-VA), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Ken Buck (R-CO), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Keith Self (R-TX), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Wes Hunt (R-TX), Cory Mills (R-FL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL).
The Rules Committee is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. on Tuesday to vote on advancing the bill, which could come to the floor for a full vote as early as Wednesday.
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Once the debt ceiling deal is passed through the House, the legislation will head to the Senate, where it could take a few days before it’s passed. After that, it'll be sent to Biden’s desk for his signature.
The clock is ticking for Congress to advance the legislation before the so-called “X-date” on Monday, which is the day the country is expected to no longer be able to pay off its debts. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen updated the deadline from her initial projection of June 1, buying lawmakers four extra days to finalize an agreement and get a bill passed before a possible default.