Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) offered a glimmer of hope about a deal to raise the debt ceiling, emphasizing that enough progress has been made that senators might need to come back from recess next week.
“The negotiations are currently making progress,” Schumer said during a second speech on the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon. “As Speaker McCarthy has noted, he expects the House to vote next week if an agreement is reached, and the Senate will begin consideration after that.”
TIM SCOTT PICKS UP FIRST SENATE ENDORSEMENT AHEAD OF WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCEMENT
The Senate majority leader added that senators will receive a 24-hour notice if a deal is reached and will be required to return to vote on the bill before they are scheduled to be back in the nation’s capital on May 30.
Schumer's messaging strategy over the last couple of days has shifted, with a marked change in tone following a White House meeting on Tuesday in which a deal was not reached, but the structure of the talks changed, turning the multilateral debt limit negotiations into direct one-to-one talks between a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and two White House aides working on President Joe Biden’s behalf.
Just last week, Schumer emphasized Democrats were refusing to publicly entertain Republicans’ spending cut demands in exchange for raising the debt ceiling and criticized McCarthy following a White House meeting on May 11, in which no progress on debt ceiling discussions was made.
“Speaker McCarthy was the only person in the room who refused to take the default off the table,” Schumer said to reporters. “The one person standing in the way is Speaker McCarthy.”
After the House narrowly passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling in late April, the Senate Democratic leader repeatedly slammed the legislation, coining it as “Republicans’ Default on America (DOA) Act.” Before the House produced the legislation, Schumer waged a messaging war with McCarthy, almost daily calling on him to “show us your plan,” a rallying cry he had utilized since early January.
Negotiations have continued in recent days after Biden, McCarthy, and others appointed lead negotiators. Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) is handling talks on the GOP side, while White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, and Legislative Affairs Director Louisa Terrell are representing the Democrats.
With time dwindling to strike a compromise that could make it through Congress in time to avoid an economic catastrophe, Schumer’s offering his most positive take yet on the negotiations without criticizing the Speaker or his team.
“I asked the speaker if he agreed that this needed to be a bipartisan process, and he said yes. Again, I believe this is a promising step in the right direction,” Schumer said on Wednesday. “Nobody will get everything they want in these discussions, and I hope nobody — nobody — draws red lines in the sand.”
Behind the scenes, aides on both sides have discussed several paths to an agreement, including changes to energy permitting, spending caps, and new work requirements for benefit programs for low-income citizens in exchange for votes to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, according to those with knowledge of the negotiations.
Biden on Wednesday signaled he would be willing to work with House Republicans on a compromise when it comes to the requirements for government assistance programs but also cautioned he wouldn’t support a major overhaul.
“I’m not going to accept any work requirements that’s going to impact on the medical health needs of people; I’m not going to accept any work requirements that go much beyond what is already — I voted years ago for the work requirements that exist. But it’s possible there could be a few others, but not anything of any consequence,” Biden said.
A group of eleven senators sent Biden a letter Thursday urging him to consider invoking the 14th Amendment to lift the debt ceiling on his own. News of the letter broke Wednesday, and five additional senators have signed on to the effort. There’s a growing fear within the conference that Biden will be unlikely to strike an acceptable deal with McCarthy.
“We know President Biden can cut deals. We know that he is a man of his word, and I have confidence and faith in the president in these negotiations,” said Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) during a press conference on Thursday. “But, I do not have faith in Speaker McCarthy and his right-wing Republican House members.”
Led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who caucuses with Democrats, the group said they appreciate Biden’s efforts to find a bipartisan deal to raise the nation’s debt limit but emphasized Republicans are “not acting in good faith.”
“All of this is absolutely unacceptable,” Sanders said, referencing the proposed work requirements for benefit programs for low-income citizens. “Meanwhile, while imposing draconian cuts on some of the most desperate people in this country, the Republicans are refusing to ask the wealthiest people in America, the people that have never ever had it so good, to pay one nickel more in taxes to start paying their fair share.”
Sanders did not go far enough to say Biden should stop negotiating with McCarthy because the parameters of a deal have still not emerged just yet. Biden himself has cast doubt on using the 14th Amendment to solve the crisis, but the senators downplayed those concerns.
“I think it’s the best solution we have. It’s not perfect,” Sanders said.
Even if negotiators are able to come to a consensus soon, there are also emerging signs that a deal may be difficult to pass in the lower chamber as well. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Thursday reasserted his objection to adding new work requirements for social benefits after saying earlier this week that the requirements won’t fly with members of his caucus.
“If they want to have a discussion about SNAP or Medicaid or other issues, let’s have that discussion during the normal legislative process or in the context of the farm bill,” Jeffries said during a weekly press conference with reporters on Thursday. “But, we’ve continued to make clear as House Democrats that so-called extreme work requirements that these MAGA Republicans want to impose as a ransom note are a nonstarter.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Signals of a drag-out fight on the other side of the aisle emerged Thursday when the House Freedom Caucus put out its position on the debt ceiling negotiations, calling for “no further discussion” on legislation to raise the nation’s borrowing limit until the Senate passes the bill House Republicans approved last month that would pair an increase in the borrowing limit with steep spending cuts. The latest development is a critical example of the hardship McCarthy will face in selling any White House-negotiated deal to his right flank, even as House Republican leadership has attempted to set realistic expectations internally.
As talks continue into the weekend, time is running out for key players to strike a deal, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterating earlier this week that the country is on track to default on its debt on June 1, giving Congress and the White House about two weeks to make an agreement and pass it out of both chambers.