The White House and Republican congressional leaders geared up lobbying campaigns to win approval of a deal to avert a US default as environmentalists, defense hawks and conservative hard-liners condemned concessions.
President Joe Biden’s cabinet members and senior White House staff already had made individual lobbying calls to at least 60 House Democrats by early Monday morning to press them for votes in favor, a Democratic official said.
Both Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed confidence they would muster the necessary votes. And approval gained early support from prominent members of each party’s moderate and pragmatist wings.
The bill sets the course for federal spending through 2025 and will suspend the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025, likely putting off another fight over federal borrowing authority until the middle of that year. In exchange for Republican votes for the suspension, Democrats agreed to cap federal spending for the next two years.
White House interpretation of the caps has it telling lawmakers the deal would lower spending by about $1 trillion over a decade, while the GOP argues the spending cut is double that.
US stock index futures posted modest gains Monday and 10-year Treasury futures were up, lowering the implied yield. amid cautious optimism the nation will avert a default.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, a leader among his party’s moderates, tweeted in a statement Monday that he’ll back the agreement, saying it prevents a default “and subsequent financial meltdown” and limits spending.
The New Democrat Coalition leadership team, a key group of moderate House Democrats, also endorsed the deal, with chair Annie Kuster of New Hampshire saying it would avoid “economic collapse”, while “preventing cuts to key programs.”
But House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, whose caucus includes a large and restive progressive wing, hadn’t made any public statement of support as of mid-day Monday.
Backers of the deal have only a week to get the agreement through Congress before a possible June 5 default that could have catastrophic consequences.
McCarthy said Sunday that he expects a majority of Republicans to vote for the emerging bill, defending it is as a “transformational” move to rein in federal spending even though “maybe it doesn’t do everything for everyone.”
The speaker signaled he would wait until at least Wednesday for a House vote, observing a rule requiring the text of legislation to be posted 72 hours in advance. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, whose chamber will take up the measure next, warned senators to be prepared to work through the weekend if dissenters throw up procedural obstacles to delay a vote.
Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis went on “Fox & Friends” Monday morning to criticize the deal. “Our country will still be careening toward bankruptcy,” he said, disparaging the agreement for sanctioning “a massive amount of spending.”
Former President Donald Trump, DeSantis’s rival for the GOP 2024 nomination, hasn’t publicly commented on the deal since it was announced, though he had previously urge GOP congressional leaders not to compromise and instead risk a default.
The Sierra Club, one of the nation’s best-known environmental groups, on Monday urged opposition, citing provisions that would expedite approvals for a natural gas pipeline running across West Virginia and time limits it would impose on environmental reviews of energy projects.
“Any deal that attempts to expedite the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline, that rolls back bedrock environmental protections, and makes life harder for workers and families already struggling is a bad deal for the country, Ben Jealous, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement.
Representative Raul Grijalva, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said the agreement “gives polluters a shield, inevitably worsening an already unacceptable status quo.”
A Republican congressional aide said discontent is also brewing among the party’s defense hawks.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina went on Fox News on Sunday to condemn a 3.3% increase in defense spending in the deal as inadequate since it is lower than current 5% annual inflation.
“Spending below inflation is not fully funding the military,” Graham said.
The agreement would hold non-security spending down next year to roughly current levels or lower.
The bill creates an $886 billion cap on security spending and a $704 billion cap on non-security domestic spending for fiscal 2024. Those would rise to $895 billion and $711 billion respectively in fiscal 2025.
There is dispute over precisely how the math adds up. The White House says that by using budget moves, the cap translates to $637 billion for domestic agencies other than veterans’ services — just $1 billion less than current levels. But the GOP says that the figure would be $583 billion, a much steeper decline.
--With assistance from Ari Natter, Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Gregory Korte and Akayla Gardner.
Author: Jennifer Jacobs, Erik Wasson and Billy House
