House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he and President Joe Biden will meet Monday afternoon and negotiators will resume debt talks later Sunday.
The Republican leader said he and the president had a “productive” call Sunday.
McCarthy stressed in comments to reporters at the US Capitol that the two sides don’t have an agreement as the country nears a catastrophic default that could come as soon as June 1.
“Time is of the essence,” the speaker said. But he added that he was more hopeful of a deal after talking to Biden about solutions to bridge their differences.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said earlier Sunday that the chances the US can pay all its bills by mid-June are “quite low.” Yellen underscored the urgency of the situation, telling NBC that there are tax payments expected then that are substantial and “getting to that date is the problem.”
The current standoff over the debt ceiling has the potential to put more strain on the US economy, which is already vulnerable to a recession after a series of interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, according to Bloomberg Economics.
Representative Garret Graves, one of the Republican negotiators, said the GOP will insist on a multi-year spending limit and such a cap is a “foundational” focus of the talks. Energy permitting changes are “irrelevant” without a deal on caps, he said.
Graves said the two sides already have “made a lot of progress” in their discussions but had “a setback” on Saturday.
McCarthy and Graves spoke to reporters shortly after the speaker finished the conversation with Biden, who spoke from Air Force One on his way back from an international summit in Japan
