by The bipartisan debt limit deal signed by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the weekend will face its first big test as some hardline Republicans criticize the bill ahead of the vote. of the House Rules Committee on Tuesday afternoon.
The committee will consider the 99-page Fiscal Responsibility Law; if it passes for floor consideration, the full House is expected to vote on the bill on Wednesday. Two of the nine Republicans on the committee, which is split 9-4 between Republicans and Democrats, are hardline conservatives who have spoken out against the deal.
Those members could try to kill the bill during a panel vote. If three Republicans and all the Democrats vote no, he would fail, but even if some Republicans defected, the Democrats could bail him out.
If the House passes the bill, then it must pass the Democratic-controlled Senate before the Treasury Department’s June 5 deadline to avoid a calamitous default.
Some hardline Republicans voiced their opposition to the bill over the weekend. Representative Ralph Norman, RS.C., called the deal “insanity” and said the bill “has virtually no cuts.” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, issued a barrage of tweets criticizing the deal as a “poop sandwich”. Norman and Roy are on the Rules Committee. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called the deal “phony spending cuts” and characterized the bill as a sign that “conservatives have been sold out once again.”
Those voices, however, may be a minority among congressional Republicans. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a key vote on the Rules Committee, praised parts of the deal in a series of tweets, touting the inclusion of a measure he sponsored that directed the government to cut 1% of general spending. if Congress does not pass the 12 appropriations bills.
“That’s in this debt limit agreement,” he said. tweeted Sunday. Although Massie has not formally said that he would support passage of the bill, his recent posts have not criticized the move.
McCarthy and his allies have expressed confidence that the bill will pass.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, RS.D., chair of the center-right Main Street Caucus, told reporters that he predicts the bill will “absolutely pass” after speaking with “dozens of members.”
Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., touted new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office provided to some Republican leaders that have not been made public, two Republican sources said. Estimates say the Biden-McCarthy bill would cut $2.1 trillion in spending, slightly more than Republicans originally projected.
Bice said the bill will pass with bipartisan support: “We’re going to get there. There will be bipartisan support on this legislation. The president is supporting him. I think we are in a very good place. Spending cuts are what we ask for; no new taxes is what we ask for; what we are asking for is that there be no clean debt ceiling. And that’s exactly what we have.”
Meanwhile, senior White House staff have been working by phone over the weekend to sell the debt ceiling deal to moderate and progressive Democratic lawmakers, including holding small group briefings and calls to answer any technical questions from lawmakers and their staff members, a White House official said.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Sunday that he believes a “vast majority” of House Democrats are “flipping” on whether they will support the deal.
Progressives held a call Monday to discuss the deal and were uneasy about how they will vote. A source on the call said there were “many open questions about the details of the deal and concerns about” issues like “fossil fuel permits, work requirements and spending cuts.”
The bill would extend the debt limit by two years along with modest cuts in federal spending and a series of policy provisions.
It would put spending limits for the next two years to establish the allocation process. It would address conservative policy measures by rescinding about $28 billion in unspent Covid relief funds, eliminating $1.4 billion in IRS funds, and shifting about $20 billion of the $80 billion provided to the agency through the Inflation Reduction Act to non-defense funds.
The legislation would restart federal student loan payments after a long “pause” that began at the start of the pandemic. It would add work requirements to get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits for people up to age 55 (the current limit is 50), with exceptions for veterans and the homeless.
In addition, it would revise the National Environmental Policy Law to expedite permits for projects.
julie tsirkin, frank thorp and Allie Raffa contributed.
