WASHINGTON -- Debt-limit talks shifted into an encouraging new phase Tuesday as President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy named top emissaries to negotiate a deal to avert an unprecedented national default. Biden cut short an upcoming overseas trip in hopes of closing an agreement before a June 1 deadline.
The fresh set of negotiators means discussions are now largely narrowed to what the White House and McCarthy will accept in order to allow lawmakers to raise the debt limit in the coming days. The speaker said after a meeting with Biden and congressional leaders that a deal was "possible" by week's end, even as -- in McCarthy's view -- the two sides remained far apart for the moment.
Biden was publicly upbeat after a roughly hour-long meeting in the Oval Office, despite having to cancel the Australia and Papua New Guinea portions of his overseas trip that begins today. Biden will participate in a Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, but then return Sunday to Washington.
"There's still work to do," Biden said. "But I made it clear to the speaker and others that we'll speak regularly over the next several days and staff's going to continue meeting daily to make sure we do not default."
Senior White House officials, as well as top aides to the four congressional leaders -- McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. -- have been meeting daily.
"Hakeem and I are committed to getting that bipartisan bill done," Schumer said. "We will not sacrifice our values," he added. "They'll probably not sacrifice their values. But we'll have to come together on something that can avoid default. Default is a disaster."
But now, Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell will take the lead in negotiations for the Democratic side, while Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a key McCarthy ally who has been a point person for the speaker on debt and budget issues, will represent Republicans.
"Now we have a format, a structure," McCarthy said as he returned to the Capitol.
Negotiators are racing to beat a deadline of June 1, which is when the Treasury Department has said the U.S. could begin defaulting on its debts for the first time in history and risk a financial catastrophe. The revised itinerary of Biden's upcoming trip showed the urgency of the talks.
White House officials sought to soften the impact of the trip cancellations. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby noted that Biden will already have met with some of the leaders of the "Quad" -- the purpose of the Australia leg of the visit -- while in Japan, and the president is inviting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for an official state visit in Washington.
Still, Kirby added: "We wouldn't even be having this discussion about the effect of the debt ceiling debate on the trip if Congress would do its job, raise the debt ceiling the way they've always done."
EMERGING AGREEMENT
Even as the Democratic president and the Republican speaker box around the politics of the issue -- with Biden insisting he's not negotiating over the debt ceiling and McCarthy working to extract spending cuts with the backdrop of a potential default -- various areas of possible agreement appeared to be emerging.
Among the items on the table: clawing back some $30 billion in untapped covid-19 money, imposing future budget caps, changing permit regulations to ease energy development and putting bolstered work requirements on recipients of government aid, according to those familiar with the talks.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday Biden "will not accept proposals that take away people's health care, health coverage." Administration officials have said they will not roll back any of the president's signature legislation, particularly on climate change.
"I cannot in good conscience support a debt ceiling proposal that pushes people into poverty," Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said in a statement Tuesday. "We're already addressing SNAP in a bipartisan way in the Farm Bill. But with default looming, jamming through harmful cuts to that program is reckless."
Congressional Democrats are growing concerned about the idea of putting new work requirements for government aid recipients after Biden suggested over the weekend he may be open to such changes. The idea of imposing more work requirements was "resoundingly" rejected by House Democrats at a morning caucus meeting, according to one Democrat at the private meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.
Progressive lawmakers in particular have raised the issue. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said, "We want to make sure that these negotiations do not include spending cuts, do not include work requirements, things that would harm people, people in rural areas, Black, brown, indigenous folks."
Jeffries' staff sought to assuage the concerns late Monday, while a separate group of more centrist Democrats signaled to their moderate Republican colleagues they are prepared to work something out to reach a debt ceiling deal, aides said Tuesday.
While McCarthy has complained the talks are slow-going, saying he first met with Biden more than 100 days ago, Biden has said it took McCarthy all this time to put forward his own proposal after Republicans failed to produce their own budget this year.
Economists on Wall Street and in the White House have warned that a prolonged default could wipe out jobs and lead the country into a recession.
Compounding pressure on Washington to strike a deal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that estimates are unchanged on the possible "X-date" when the U.S. could run out of cash.
But Yellen, in a letter to the House and Senate, left some opening for a possible time extension on a national default, stating that "the actual date Treasury exhausts extraordinary measures could be a number of days or weeks later than these estimates."
"It is essential that Congress act as soon as possible," Yellen said Tuesday in remarks before the Independent Community Bankers of America. "In my assessment -- and that of economists across the board -- a U.S. default would generate an economic and financial catastrophe."
Congress has just a few days when both the House and Senate are in session to pass legislation. Senate Democrats were also weighing whether they would be able to take a weeklong recess scheduled to begin Monday, before the Memorial Day weekend.
Congressional leaders will also need time to take the temperature of rank-and-file lawmakers on any agreement, and it's not at all clear that the emerging contours go far enough to satisfy McCarthy's hard-right faction in the House or would be acceptable to a sizable number of Democrats whose votes would almost certainly be needed to secure any final deal.
Republicans led by McCarthy want Biden to accept their proposal to roll back spending, cap future outlays and make other policy changes in the package passed last month by House Republicans. McCarthy says the House is the only chamber that has taken action to raise the debt ceiling. But the House bill is almost certain to fail in the Senate, controlled by Democrats, and Biden has said he would veto it.
An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending. It would only allow for borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.
Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Mascaro, Seung Min Kim, Fatima Hussein and Kevin Freking of The Associated Press and by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Catie Edmondson of The New York Times.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., talk to reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of N.Y., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Washington, about the debt ceiling. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., meeting Sith Congressional leaders in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a meeting with Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki at the G-7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Meeting at the Toki Messe convention center in Niigata, Japan, Saturday, May 13, 2023. (Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool Photo via AP)
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the White House, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of N.Y., talk to reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Washington, about the debt ceiling. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., talk to reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of N.Y., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Washington, about the debt ceiling. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy of Calif., left, and Vice President Kamala Harris listen as President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with Congressional leaders in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)