Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks to reporters as he enters the House of Representatives for a procedural vote ahead of the final vote on HR 3746 – Financial Responsibility Act 2023 on May 31.
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Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks to reporters as he enters the House of Representatives for a procedural vote ahead of the final vote on HR 3746 – Financial Responsibility Act 2023 on May 31.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
House lawmakers are debating a compromise bill mediated between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avoid an unprecedented default just days away.
“I could say, ‘I’m going to vote no because there’s something that’s not on the bill.’ If I had followed that philosophy, I would never have voted yes,” McCarthy said on the floor, nodding to a faction in his conference that was unhappy with the deal.
McCarthy added: “I was simply reading the bills in front of me and deciding if this was good for the country. I would say the easy answer is yes.” “For the first time in more than a decade, Congress will spend less next year than this year.”
The 99 page bill cleared a procedural hurdle Wednesday afternoon with bipartisan support. Democratic lawmakers initially failed to vote on the rule needed to advance the law, leaving Republicans among the only ones to vote in favor of the rule for several minutes.
“I would probably do the same thing,” McCarthy said of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ choice to wait until the last minute to give his members the green light to vote. “Fair play.”
A similar strategy could also be on display at the evening vote, with Democratic lawmakers waiting on the floor to see how many Republicans back it first.
“You can see it,” New Hampshire Representative Annie Kuster told NPR.
“I think it is appropriate for our voters to know the support level of the Republican caucus and to indicate how many members of that caucus are willing to let our economy go,” said Kuster. We fall.” “I think that’s important information.”
Kuster, who spoke with President Biden about the legislation on Monday, said he was “very interested” in reaching out to members to increase support for the bill. Kuster presides over the center-left New Democratic Alliance, which is likely to deliver the majority of Democrats’ votes on Wednesday night. Kuster intends to vote on the bill and hopes it will pass, opening the way for a new chapter in bipartisanship.
“Ever since the previous president and certainly since January 6, it’s been very difficult to work on the Capitol across the aisle. It’s painful,” she said. “And I think this whole deal is a turning point towards a more productive relationship between Republicans and Democrats.”
What’s on the bill?
The bipartisan bill would combine a debt limit suspension for nearly two years with a package of spending cuts. It will set spending limits on the federal budget and make policy changes, including: a recover about 27 billion dollars in federal agencies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and overhaul licensing assessments for energy projects. It would transfer about $20 billion of the $80 billion the IRS obtained through the Inflation Reduction Act.
The bill introduces periods of higher age limits on work requirements for some federal safety net programs like food stamps, raising the maximum age from 50 to 54 by 2025. It would also create new waivers that waive those requirements for all veterans and those experiencing homelessness, and aging 18-24 year olds not in foster care.
Congressional Budget Office estimate Changes to the food stamp program could cost the government about $2.1 billion over the next decade.
The CBO forecasts the overall deal will cut the federal deficit by about $1.5 trillion over the next decade. That’s just under 7% of what those deficits were expected before the deal. Most of the deficit reduction will come from limiting discretionary spending outside of defense – capital take up a small part of the federal budget.
Expect to defect on both sides of the aisle
The high-stakes negotiations for the deal and the subsequent vote were a key test for McCarthy as speaker. With his narrow majority, McCarthy had a bit of a balancing act – crafting a deal that met the demands of his convention majority without offending some of the Democratic lawmakers he needed. support the bill to get it passed.
A bloc of conservatives expressed their disappointment with certain provisions of the law and argued that McCarthy had not adapted the bill close enough to a version that House passed in April.
“People want to compare with what they want,” said Representative Don Bacon, R-Neb. “But they should compare it to where we’re at, where we’re going to hit a clean debt ceiling for nothing.”
GOP members leave Tuesday night’s caucus largely quashed the idea that unaffected members could move to overthrow McCarthy under a term he agreed to during his employment fight for the hammer that allows any single legislator to put in a snap vote potentially toppling the speaker.
Meanwhile, some Democrats are struggling between wanting to pass a bill to avoid a potentially catastrophic default and passing legislation with provisions their voters do not support, such as the work requirements and accelerate the licensing of energy projects.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he plans to vote ‘no’ on the bill, citing concerns about changes to food assistance, which he thinks will have an impact. commensurate with Black women.
But he left open the possibility that he would support the bill if it would change the outcome.
“If some vote is required to ensure that the country does not default, then I think any of us would provide that,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin told reporters the deal was “imperfect” but necessary.
“There is a group of us who feel strongly that while we do not like the bill and we do not like the way it is negotiated in many ways, we are not going to let our country cross the financial cliff. and that should be our guiding force,” she said.
According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the vote comes just days before America could run out of money to pay its bills.
NPR’s Scott Horsley, Lexie Schapitl and Vincent Acovino contributed to this report.
