Washington CNN —
The White House and House Republicans have an agreement in principle on a deal to raise the debt ceiling and cap spending, multiple sources familiar with the negotiations told CNN.
The agreement in principle was reached by President Joe Biden and Speaker McCarthy during their phone call Saturday, one of the sources said.
House GOP leaders were planning to brief all members on the state of negotiations later in the evening, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, and the text of the deal will be reviewed overnight by both sides to ensure it lines up with the tentative agreement.
Despite the deal in principle, new issues could easily crop up at each step along the way, and each step has the potential to be time-consuming, running out the clock ahead of the debt limit deadline early next month.
Selling the deal to members will be no small task, with stiff opposition expected from both the left and right. That means it’s going to require an intense whipping operation – and support from both sides of the aisle – to get the bill over the finish line.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations told CNN earlier Saturday that a provision to impose new work requirements for certain social safety net programs had remained a final sticking point.
Republicans had been pushing the issue hard, saying beneficiaries of programs, such as food stamps, who do not have dependents should be forced to follow new rules. Democrats, however, had cast that idea as an attack on poor people.
McCarthy had arrived at the US Capitol on Saturday morning after his top Republican negotiators, Reps. Garret Graves of Louisiana and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, had worked late into the night drafting the final details of a deal from the speaker’s office.
The California Republican said he’d like to hold a vote on a debt limit bill as soon as Tuesday.
Asked by CNN if he was confident he could get the full House GOP Caucus behind him following an agreement, McCarthy said: “Do you ever think you’re going to get every single member to vote for it? I didn’t get every single member to vote for the first one. I didn’t get every single member to vote for me for speaker.”
But McCarthy maintained he’d be able to get the majority of House Republicans on board, telling CNN, “I don’t think I’ll have any problem with that.”
White House officials were generally optimistic about the state of negotiations Saturday afternoon. One official told CNN that negotiations were ongoing and echoed Biden’s remark on Friday that they were close to a deal.
Spending cuts on domestic programs were another issue that negotiators had worked to sort out late Friday night, but It’s unclear to what extent the the dispute has been fully resolved.
Energy permitting reform, which aims to cut down the time it takes for new projects to get approved, remained a high priority for Graves. The issue pits environmentalists against the oil and gas industry and has divided congressional Democrats.
The two sides have been trying to firm up the legislative text as they’ve gone along in a bid to speed up that process.
“House Republicans have a bill that we passed out of the House to raise the debt ceiling. So we have legislative text that is wide and complete. And so that is a helpful baseline when you’re getting into a window like this,” McHenry said Saturday.
Selling the deal to members will be no small task, with stiff opposition expected from both the left and right. That means it’s going to require an intense whipping operation – and support from both sides of the aisle – to get the bill over the finish line.
The pressure on negotiators is intense as the US steadily inches closer to the possibility of a default and the threat of economic catastrophe.
In a major development Friday that will give lawmakers more time to reach and pass a deal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Congress must address the debt ceiling by June 5 or the government will not have enough funds to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time. Previously, Yellen had estimated that the earliest possible date a default could occur was June 1.
McHenry said the Yellen’s new date “clarifies that our timeline is very tight.”
“House Republicans asked for clarification. Chip Roy and Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds and Dan Bishop, among others, asked for clarification on Secretary Yellen’s math. She updated her math. Obviously, it was a good request. And I think it clarifies our window for us to actually achieve the deal,” he said Saturday.
Debt limit predictions, however, aren’t clear-cut. Rather than a set-in-stone deadline, it is more of a best-guess estimate, which makes it harder to know exactly how much time Congress has to act to avert potential financial catastrophe.
This story has been updated with additional information.
