Debt limit divide comes to a head as Biden, McCarthy meet at White House

The political divide over raising the debt limit will come to a head this week when President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) meet face-to-face at the White House.

The meeting — set for Tuesday — will mark the first time since Feb. 1 that Biden and McCarthy will speak at length about the debt ceiling and government spending. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also will be in attendance.

The huddle comes one week after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the U.S. could default on its debt as early as June 1 if the borrowing limit is not raised, upping the pressure on Congress and the White House to strike a deal and avoid economic catastrophe.

Both sides, however, are digging in their heels, increasing the stakes going into Tuesday’s meeting.

Also this week, the House is scheduled to vote on a border security and immigration reform bill — the same day Title 42 is set to expire. And on Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to have a hearing on the conflict in Sudan.

Biden, congressional leaders meet amid debt limit standoff

Tuesday’s meeting at the White House marks a critical moment in the debt-limit standoff, which has been ongoing since January and faces a looming deadline next month.

But discussions about — and concerns regarding — the borrowing limit kicked into high gear in the past week after Yellen warned the U.S. could run out of cash to pay its bills on June 1, leaving Congress and the White House less than a month to come to some sort of bipartisan consensus.

The sprint to that deadline will hit a fever pitch Tuesday, when the top four congressional leaders huddle with Biden at the White House.

“It’s a very important discussion,” Jeffries told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, referring to this week’s meeting.

The gathering comes as both sides dig in their heels over how to deal with the debt limit. President Biden and congressional Democrats have pushed for a “clean” debt ceiling increase, meaning no conditions are associated with the hike. Democrats have said they are willing to discuss spending cuts as part of the annual appropriations process.

But Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing spending cuts to be tied to any lift of the debt ceiling. House Republicans narrowly passed a bill last month that would increase the debt limit into next year and implement $4.8 trillion in spending cuts, but Schumer has said it is dead on arrival in the Senate.

The stalemate hardened on Saturday when 43 Republican senators — including McConnell — penned a letter to Schumer saying, “The Senate Republican conference is united behind the House Republican conference in support of spending cuts and structural budget reform as a starting point for negotiations on the debt ceiling.”

They warned that they will not vote to begin debate “on any bill that raises the debt ceiling without substantive spending and budget reforms,” deepening the divide between the two parties.

Heading into Tuesday’s meeting, Democratic and Republican negotiators are showing no signs of wavering from their stances.

Yellen reiterated on Sunday that the U.S. can run out of cash for its bills in early June — and warned of what could happen should the U.S. default on its debt for the first time in history.

“It’s widely agreed that financial and economic chaos would ensue,” the Treasury Secretary told ABC’s “This Week.”

“U.S. Treasury securities are the safest bedrock security underlying the global financial system. A failure of the United States to honor all of its debt would call into question our creditworthiness,” she added. “Even as we get very close to this date, if Congress doesn’t act, we’re likely to see financial market consequences.”

As the calendar inches closer to the June 1 deadline, a number of avenues are being floated as potential ways to lift the debt limit and walk the U.S. away from the edge of the fiscal cliff.

Both sides could strike a deal, or lawmakers could vote for a short-term debt limit hike, allowing for more time to negotiate a long-term solution.

Jeffries on Sunday, however, told NBC, “I don’t think the responsible thing to do is to kick the can down the road.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the chair of the House Financial Services Committee and a close McCarthy ally, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, “I think everything’s on the table at this point,” when asked about a short-term increase.

House Democrats are also eyeing a discharge petition to force a vote on a debt ceiling increase, but that would require support from at least five Republicans should Democrats remain banded together — and GOP cooperation is far from assured.

More from The Hill: House Democrats reveal secret plan to force vote on debt limit hike

One other avenue discussed during the Sunday show circuit is citing the 14th Amendment. The amendment contains a clause that says, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned,” leading some to wonder whether it allows the U.S. to keep paying its bills even if the borrowing limit is not raised.

But in an interview with ABC, Yellen said invoking the amendment would be a “constitutional crisis.”

“Our priority is to make sure that Congress does its job. There is no way to protect our financial system and our economy other than Congress doing its job and raising the debt ceiling and enabling us to pay our bills. And we should not get to the point where we need to consider whether the president can go on issuing debt. This would be a constitutional crisis,” she said.

House to consider border bill with Title 42 set to expire

The House is scheduled to consider a border security and immigration reform bill this week, just as Title 42 is set to expire.

The legislation — titled the Secure the Border Act — was introduced in the House last week by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.).

The measure, according to a fact sheet , would compel the Biden administration to restart constructing the wall on the southern border, expand the number of Border Patrol agents, put an end to the “catch-and-release” policy, and “strengthen and streamline the asylum process,” among other tenets.

It will hit the floor after weeks of discussions within the House GOP conference over different parts of the legislation.

“House Republicans have spent months holding hearings with border patrol agents, local law enforcement, and stakeholders to hear first-hand about their ongoing struggles and what resources are necessary to enhance security and regain operational control,” Diaz-Balart said in a statement last week while introducing the measure.

He said the legislation “will provide real, thoughtful solutions to restore order at the Southwest border, enhance our national security, and most importantly, protect unaccompanied minors — something that the Administration has refused to acknowledge and failed to act upon.”

The House is slated to vote on the bill Thursday — according to multiple outlets — the same day that Title 42 is set to expire. The Trump-era policy allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border and prohibits them from seeking asylum. Its expiration is expected to lead to an increase in migrants arriving at the border.

In a statement last week, House GOP leadership references Title 42’s expected expiration.

“With Title 42 ending on May 11, and a surge of illegal immigration already occurring, we cannot afford to be blind to the truth, as the Biden administration has been for over two years. Our border is not secure and we must act,” McCarthy, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) wrote.

Senate panel to hold a hearing on conflict in Sudan

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing this week focused on the situation in Sudan.

The hearing — titled “Conflict in Sudan: Options for an Effective Policy Response” — is slated for 9:45 a.m. Wednesday. Witnesses include Victoria Nuland, the under secretary of state for political affairs, and Sarah Charles, the assistant to the administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance.

The hearing comes amid a conflict in Sudan, where military factions — the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces — have been fighting one another. More than 100,000 people have fled the country to neighboring nations amid the conflict, the United Nations refugee agency said last week.

Last month, the U.S. military evacuated embassy personnel and their families from the country as the fighting continued.

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