Members of the House of Representatives will be permitted to leave Washington, D.C., on Thursday for recess, but lawmakers are instructed to “stay close” in case they have to return to the Capitol should a deal be struck on the debt ceiling over the weekend, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said on Wednesday.
“Following tomorrow’s votes, if some new agreement is reached between President Biden and Speaker McCarthy, members will receive 24 hours’ notice if you need to return to Washington for any additional votes either over the weekend or next week,” Scalise said on the House floor.
MAKE OR BREAK: THIS WEEK INTO NEXT IS CRITICAL WINDOW FOR DEBT CEILING NEGOTIATIONS
The announcement comes as the White House remains at an impasse with Republican negotiators on debt ceiling talks, with just over a week until the default deadline when the country could no longer be able to pay all of its bills. Negotiators met for roughly four hours on Wednesday to continue talks, although it remains unclear what progress has been made. Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s (R-CA) top negotiators, declined to give an update as he returned to the Capitol for votes.
Lawmakers had been bracing for the possibility they would need to stay in Washington over the holiday weekend, especially as the June 1 deadline crept closer and an agreement remained out of reach.
McCarthy said he “felt good” about the progress made during the afternoon meeting between negotiators but noted there remain several sticking points. Among those disagreements are spending caps, which the White House and Republicans have wrestled over since before negotiations began.
“You have to spend less than you spent last year. That’s not that difficult to do,” McCarthy said. “But in Washington, somehow, that is a problem. They have increased spending with the Democrats in the majority. … We can find waste; we can eliminate that.”
The speaker said he would stay in Washington over the weekend to work on negotiations, noting he would continue working until we can come to an agreement.
“I think that’s the responsibility we have,” McCarthy said. “I was here last weekend. I was here when the president was out of the country. I was here when the president said he wouldn’t meet with us. We’re gonna get the job done.”
The decision comes ahead of the looming default deadline when the country could become unable to pay its debts, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said could come as soon as June 1. That gives the White House and Congress just eight days to come to a deal and pass legislation raising the debt ceiling and addressing government spending.
Scalise said he thinks it’s “still possible” to get a bill passed by the House and Senate before that deadline, even with the caveat that any legislation would need to be available for review at least 72 hours before holding a vote, according to House rules.
“It shows how there needs to be a higher sense of urgency by the White House to engage in a more serious way. You know, again, they’ve acted like the clock doesn’t matter and that the deadline doesn’t matter,” Scalise said. “So the June 1 deadline mustn’t be that important to the president and surely not that important to the Senate because they, for weeks now, could have taken up the bill we passed them.”
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The United States hit its debt ceiling on Jan. 19. At the time, Yellen said her agency would take “extraordinary measures” to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its obligations, but those measures could be exhausted in the coming weeks.
Reese Gorman and David Sivak contributed to this report.
