Speaker Kevin McCarthy stated Monday that he is confident Congress can still meet a potential June 1 default date despite the weekend’s stalling in negotiations with the White House.
McCarthy admitted that he’d have preferred to reach a deal before Sunday night. However, he said the U.S. can still avoid a destructive default on its debt by June 1, if House negotiators are able to strike and pass a deal during this week.
“We should have gotten this done by the weekend.” McCarthy said to reporters at the Capitol hours before his Monday scheduled meeting with Joe Biden that it does make things more difficult, but he still believes they can be accomplished.
They last met on 16 May, before Biden’s visit to Japan for the G-7 summit.
McCarthy said that a deal could be reached “tonight, tomorrow, or this week” and that it was “still possible” for the June 1 deadline to be avoided.
McCarthy spoke with reporters on Monday afternoon. This was shortly after the second of two meetings between GOP negotiators, and White House officials.
Reps. Garret Graves (R-La.) Patrick McHenry, the speaker’s representative in the talks has said very little about the progress made over the past 24 hours. The Democratic negotiators, including Steve Ricchetti (a close Biden advisor), White House budget chief Shalanda young and congressional liaison Louisa Terrell have also been quiet.
But several Democrats have privately said that the talks took a bad turn over the weekend.
McCarthy’s negotiators, according to a White House official on Monday, took a more hardline in their talks towards the end of the week and through the weekend. They also insisted on new restrictions that were not included in the GOP-passed House bill for the federal nutrition program known as SNAP.
The White House spent most of the morning releasing a series articles that highlighted the devastating impact of a default on small businesses and veterans, as well as major health programs.
McCarthy described the discussions as “professional” on Monday. He acknowledged that there are still large gaps. Republicans are demanding steep cuts in domestic spending as well as new requirements such as work requirements for social program. The speaker stated that these requirements remained a top priority.
McCarthy added: “The discussion today is about understanding both sides.”
Adam Cancryn is the author of this report.
