The House narrowly passed Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) debt ceiling bill on Wednesday, handing the Republican leader a key legislative win and setting the stage for him to restart negotiations with the White House before risking a default on the country’s loans.
Lawmakers passed the debt ceiling proposal along party lines with a 217-215 vote, with just four Republicans voting against the measure. The passage comes after days of marathon meetings and hourslong deliberations among Republicans to craft legislation that could give McCarthy leverage as he seeks to make a deal with President Joe Biden.
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“Republicans just passed the only bill in Washington to lift the debt ceiling, end wasteful Washington spending, and puts America back on the right economic path. We’re going to limit the growth in the future and we’re going to save by pulling back,” McCarthy said after the bill passed. “The president can no longer ignore by not negotiating. Sen. [Chuck] Schumer, if he thinks he’s got a plan, put it on the floor [and] see if it can pass.”
McCarthy unveiled his long-awaited debt ceiling bill last week, proposing to raise the debt ceiling over the next year either by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first. The Limit, Save, Grow Act seeks to cool inflation and limit government spending by reducing discretionary funds to pre-pandemic levels and capping budget increases 1% each year, among other provisions.
Despite vowing to move the legislation to the floor without any changes, McCarthy did make a number of concessions late Tuesday night in order to get some key GOP lawmakers on board.
Most notably, McCarthy agreed to make changes to one of his provisions that would repeal tax credits on clean fuels after concerns from some Midwestern lawmakers, particularly from Iowa. After meeting with members of the Iowa delegation late Tuesday, McCarthy agreed to include exceptions to preserve those credits for those who entered into binding contracts between August 2022 and April 19.
Proposals to cut those ethanol tax credits threatened to sink McCarthy’s bill after at least eight Republicans from the “Corn Belt” said they’d vote against the bill unless changes were made. Those threats put McCarthy in a bind because he can only lose four GOP votes on any piece of legislation due to his slim majority in the House.
The decision by McCarthy appeared to pay off as all four of Iowa’s representatives — Reps. Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Randy Feenstra — voted in favor of the legislation despite expressing disapproval earlier this week.
The speaker was also able to win over some key holdout votes after meeting with lawmakers on Wednesday afternoon, including Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who voted in favor of the measure after initially saying they were opposed.
Some Republicans maintained their opposition, including Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who voted against the legislation. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) also voted no.
The bill’s passage is largely symbolic because it’s unlikely to make it to the Senate floor for a vote. Even if it did, Biden vowed to veto the legislation should it reach his desk.
“[The bill] is a reckless attempt to extract extreme concessions as a condition for the United States simply paying the bills it has already incurred,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday. “The President has been clear that he will not accept such attempts at hostage-taking.”
However, with the legislation making it through the House, all eyes are on Biden to see if he’ll agree to meet with McCarthy to hash out an agreement. Biden and McCarthy initially met in January to begin negotiations, but that meeting ended without a binding agreement because the White House remains adamant it will not discuss federal spending until the borrowing limit is lifted.
Since then, McCarthy said Biden has “ignored every opportunity to communicate” and continue negotiations.
“I don’t know what [else] we’re supposed to do,” McCarthy said. “We’ve done our job.”
As a result, some Democrats have joined the calls of their Republican colleagues for Biden to return to the negotiating table.
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“Our elected leaders must stop with the political games, work together and negotiate a compromise. Instead, it has been more than 78 days since President Biden last met with Speaker McCarthy,” Manchin said on April 20, the day McCarthy unveiled his proposal. “This signals a deficiency of leadership, and it must change.”
The United States hit its debt ceiling on Jan. 19, raising fears of a default. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her agency would take “extraordinary measures” to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its obligations, but the department will only have a few months before those measures are exhausted.
