WASHINGTON — House Republicans say they’ll probably vote next week on a debt limit bill — but they’re still working out the details.
Leaders presented rank-and-file members a broad outline of the legislation on Tuesday morning during a GOP conference meeting in the Capitol basement, and top Republicans came out saying things looked good for next week despite the uncertainty.
“We have an outline of the plan and there’s still input coming in,” House Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters after the meeting. “But I’m confident we’ll have it and comfortable we’ll pass it.”
Treasury Department officials have warned that failing to raise the debt ceiling — a legal limit on how much money the federal government can borrow in order to pay its expenses — could spark a financial crisis and crush the economy. Congress has repeatedly modified the debt limit in recent decades, including three times under President Donald Trump, and will have to do so again sometime this year.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has said Republicans won’t support a debt limit increase unless Democrats and President Joe Biden agree to major spending cuts. He said in a speech Monday that House Republicans would pass a bill raising the debt limit until next year, cutting some aspects of the federal budget to 2022 levels, restraining future spending growth and imposing “work requirements” on safety net programs.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Republicans have little more than a speech and talking points, and said even flirting with a default on Treasury securities could have negative financial consequences, since they act as a benchmark for the financial system.
“It risks raising car payments, it risks raising home mortgage payments, it risks raising student loan debt payments,” Jeffries said. “It will hurt everyday Americans and crash our economy at a very fragile time, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the regional banking crisis.”
A major question is just how much Republicans would increase the borrowing limit. While McCarthy suggested Monday that the House would approve a debt increase that would last until next year, Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) said leadership presented a range of dollar amounts and possible end dates on Tuesday.
“They range from short term to something much longer term,” Ferguson said, without offering any finer details.
McCarthy’s mission is to win the support of 218 out of 222 House Republicans to bolster his negotiating position with Biden, who has refused to negotiate, partly because it’s unclear whether McCarthy has the backing of his colleagues.
Several Republicans remained unsure about the legislation as of Tuesday morning, but said things would become clearer in the coming days.
“I don’t know what’s in the package completely — that’s the issue,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), leader of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, told reporters.
McCarthy’s debt ceiling strategy recalls his speaker bid in January, when he launched into a series of votes without his party fully behind him, but eventually pulled together enough support.
Ultimately, however, a debt ceiling bill will require approval from Biden and Senate Democrats, meaning this month’s action in the House represents little more than Republicans finally firming up their initial negotiating position.
Another uncertainty is to which programs Republicans want to add work requirements. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told HuffPost he expected the package to include his proposal to require able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work 120 hours per month, or about 30 hours per week, in order to receive health care coverage.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) wouldn’t say for sure if his proposal for stricter work requirements under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would be included.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss the exact provisions of the speaker’s plan until he releases it,” Johnson said. “In general, I’m very happy with where the conference is headed with work requirements.”
The proposals from Johnson and Gaetz would deny benefits to unemployed adults aged 18 to 64, including parents of minor children who are over 6 years old. Currently, SNAP recipients who have minor children or who are older than 49 are exempt from work requirements, and Medicaid beneficiaries have historically not had to comply with them.
House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), whose committee oversees nutrition policy in the House, said he thought Johnson’s proposal to tighten eligibility for SNAP recipients in their 60s is “way out of what’s appropriate.”
Later on Tuesday, Perry and other members of the Freedom Caucus said they wanted the Republican bill to include repeal of several provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, the law Democrats enacted last year to boost IRS enforcement, reduce the cost of prescription drugs, and subsidize green energy through a host of tax credits.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the Freedom Caucus policy director, said Republicans weren’t targeting Democrats’ prescription drug changes, which capped the price of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries and allowed Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for lower costs.
“I think all we’re talking about at the moment is all the stuff related to the subsidies, the climate change and the green stuff,” Roy said. “And the IRS agents.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates criticized the idea of repealing the Inflation Reduction Act as “killing tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in a windfall for China, raising prescription drug and energy costs for middle class families, and sending the deficit skyward – all in the name of sweetheart deals for rich special interests.”