President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are scheduled to meet this afternoon to talk about the looming debt limit crisis. Here’s what happened over the weekend as Biden wrapped up his G7 meetings in Japan and returned home.
- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen again warned that June 1 is the date after which the U.S. may not be able to pay its bills. “I certainly haven’t changed my assessment, so I think that that’s a hard deadline,” she said on Meet the Press.
- Negotiators from both sides met for about two and a half hours Sunday night at the Capitol but didn’t tell reporters how the talks went, CQ reported.
- Spending caps are a major GOP demand, but they want to exclude defense spending from any cuts. The White House is insisting that any spending caps apply across defense and nondefense spending, according to CQ.
- Even as spending levels are up in the air for fiscal year 2024, House Republicans are committed to passing all 12 appropriations bills this year, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Sunday on Fox News. The House Appropriations Committee will mark up four of those bills this week, including the Military Construction-VA bill Tuesday morning.
- Some Democrats are pushing Biden to consider invoking the 14th Amendment, which has a clause about paying public debts, but it’s far from a solid legal argument. For the first time, Biden seemed open to the idea. “I think we have the authority,” Biden said Sunday before leaving Japan, as Punchbowl News “The question is, could it be done and invoked in time.”
Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Isaac Orozco
