Biden says final US debt ceiling deal ready to move to Congress for vote
Adds details, background
By Moira Warburton, Diane Bartz and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON, May 28 (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday finalized a budget agreement with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025, and said the deal was ready to move to Congress for a vote.
"This is a deal that's good news for ... the American people," Biden told reporters at the White House after a call with McCarthy to put the final touches to a tentative deal they struck on Saturday night.
"It takes the threat of catastrophic default off the table, protects our hard-earned and historic economic recovery," Biden said.
The deal, if approved, will prevent the U.S. government from defaulting on its debt and comes after weeks of heated negotiations between Biden and House Republicans.
It still needs to pass through a narrowly divided Congress before June 5, when the U.S. Treasury says it would run short of money to cover all of its obligations.
"I strongly urge both chambers to pass that agreement," Biden said, adding that he expected McCarthy to have the necessary votes for the deal to pass.
The deal has drawn fire from hardline Republicans and progressive Democrats, but Biden and McCarthy are banking on getting enough votes from both sides.
McCarthy earlier on Sunday predicted he would have the support of a majority of his fellow Republicans, and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said he expected Democratic support.
The agreement would suspend the debt limit through January 1 of 2025, cap spending in the 2024 and 2025 budgets, claw back unused COVID funds, speed up the permitting process for some energy projects and include extra work requirements for food aid programs for poor Americans.
The 99-page bill would authorize more than $886 billion for security spending in fiscal year 2024 and over $703 billion in non-security spending for the same year, not including some adjustments. It would also authorize a 1% increase for security spending in fiscal year 2025.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell applauded the agreement and called on the Senate to act swiftly to pass it without unnecessary delay once it has gone through the House.
"Today’s agreement makes urgent progress toward preserving our nation’s full faith and credit and a much-needed step toward getting its financial house in order," McConnell said.
Members of the Republican hardline Freedom Caucus said they would try to prevent the agreement from passing in a House vote expected on Wednesday.
"We're going to try," Representative Chip Roy, a prominent Freedom Caucus member, said in a tweet.
McCarthy dismissed threats of opposition within his own party, saying "over 95%" of House Republicans were "overwhelmingly excited" about the deal.
"This is a good strong bill that a majority of Republicans will vote for," the California Republican told reporters in the U.S. Capitol. "You're going to have Republicans and Democrats be able to move this to the president."
MCCARTHY NOT WORRIED
To win the speaker's gavel, McCarthy agreed to enable any single House member to call for a vote to unseat him, potentially making him vulnerable to ouster by disgruntled Republicans. But he has said he is "not at all" concerned about that possibility during the debt ceiling debate.
Republicans control the House by 222-213, while Democrats control the Senate by 51-49. These narrow margins mean that moderates from both sides will have to support the bill if it is opposed by hardliners in either or both parties.
"I'm not happy with some of the things I'm hearing about," Representative Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told CNN's "State of the Union."
She praised the deal that she said would save Medicaid from benefit cuts while expanding the safety net to veterans and homeless people. "We kept the student debt responsibility that we have," she said, referring to Biden's policy of limited loan forgiveness.
Progressive Democrats in both chambers had said they would not support any deal that had additional work requirements for government food and healthcare programs.
The deal does add work requirements to food aid for some people aged 50 to 54, but White House officials said the carefully worded text would mean that roughly the same number of people would be subject to the requirements as is the case under current law.
Understanding the debt ceiling https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-DEBT/HISTORY/znvnbkznlvl/
EXPLAINER-U.S. debt ceiling focus on 'discretionary spending' means cuts ahead nL1N37K1ZT
FACTBOX-What's in the debt ceiling deal Biden, McCarthy are negotiating? nL1N37N1FC
FACTBOX-Top US credit rating under watch as debt ceiling talks drag on nL4N37N29P
ANALYSIS-Why a US debt deal may only provide short-term relief for markets nL1N37N1SD
Reporting by Moira Warburton, Steve Holland, Diane Bartz, Daphne Psaledakis, Richard Cowan, Trevor Hunnicutt and Idrees Ali; Writing by David Morgan and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Heather Timmons, Mark Porter, Andrea Ricci, Deepa Babington and Lincoln Feast.
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
