A bill to raise the country's debt limit and avert a first-ever U.S. default cleared a key procedural hurdle on Tuesday night when a key House committee voted to advance the bill, setting up a final vote on Wednesday.
The measure narrowly cleared the House Rules Committee in a 7-6 vote, with two Republican lawmakers breaking ranks to vote against the bill.
The House Rules Committee vote to advance the 99-page bill -- an agreement between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy which, among other things, imposes spending caps for the next two years in exchange for a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling -- was the measure's first major test.
Lawmakers on the Rules Committee kicked off Tuesday's meeting by trading blame for what led to the debt limit standoff.
Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, the chairman of the panel, called the bill "a compromise" which "reflects the reality of divided government."
"I understand members from both sides of the aisle might be dissatisfied with this package," Cole said. "That's to be expected in divided government."
Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, the ranking Democratic member of the panel, said that "this is not a happy day."
"We are less than a week from default," he said. "And we've been rushed back to Washington to vote on a deal, all because Republicans wanted to push their luck and play games with the debt limit. Frankly, we should not be here. We should have taken care of this months ago. This represents an all time high in recklessness and stupidity, quite frankly."
"Every time Republicans are in charge, they screw things up," he charged. "The last time Republicans held a majority, we ended up with the longest government shutdown in United States history. Now here we are today, this time dealing with a totally manufactured crisis that risks the full faith and credit of the United States. Both then and now. Democrats have had to be the adults in the room to come in and clean up their mess. Republicans are unfit to govern."
Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, two members of the panel, voted against the bill. In recent days, both lawmakers have offered sharp criticism for the bill.
"A $4T debt ceiling increase with virtually no cuts is not what we agreed to," Norman wrote on Twitter on Saturday. "Not gonna vote to bankrupt our country. The American people deserve better."
Roy, on the other hand, called the bill a “turd-sandwich” and said it’s “not a good deal.”
All eyes were on Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican holdout on the panel who had previously not yet definitively stated which way he will vote. But his vote to advance the measure on Tuesday night likely gave House Republican leadership a sigh of relief after growing opposition to the bill from conservative lawmakers.
Speaker McCarthy worked furiously Tuesday to shore up support for the measure amid backlash from conservative lawmakers. All told, more than two dozen House Republicans have publicly said they will not support the bill, according to a tally from Spectrum News.
Also Tuesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office assessed that the bill would reduce federal deficits by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years.
In a surprise that could further erode Republican support, the GOP’s drive to impose work requirements on older Americans receiving food stamps ends up boosting spending by $2.1 billion over the time period -- because the final deal exempted veterans and homeless people, expanding the food stamp rolls by some 78,000 people monthly, the CBO said.
Lawmakers on the far-right House Freedom Caucus held a press conference Tuesday to slam the bill and say they will oppose it.
Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, the chairman of the HFC, said that the bill "totally fails to deliver" and pledged that the gathered lawmakers are "absolutely opposed" to the measure and "will do everything in our power to stop it."
"Not one Republican should vote for this deal, it is a bad deal," Roy said at the press conference, adding: "We will continue to fight it today, tomorrow, and no matter what happens, there's going to be a reckoning about what just occurred, unless we stop this bill by tomorrow.”
Several caucus members have already spoken out against the bill, including Florida Reps. Byron Donalds and Anna Paulina Luna, Virginia Rep. Bob Good, North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert.
“No one claiming to be a conservative could justify a YES vote,” Good wrote on Twitter.
“The debt ceiling deal is classic Washington DC swamp garbage,” Boebert said in a Twitter post. “This Congress promised to be different. Supporting this deal is stabbing the American people directly in the back.”
“After I heard about the debt ceiling deal, I was a NO,” Donalds wrote on Twitter. “After reading the debt ceiling deal, I am absolutely NO!!”
Notable House GOP dissent on Tuesday came from lawmakers like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison and South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace.
“Washington is broken,” Mace wrote on Twitter Tuesday, before lobbing an insult at President Biden.
“Republicans got outsmarted by a President who can’t find his pants,” she said. “I’m voting NO on the debt ceiling debacle because playing the DC game isn’t worth selling out our kids and grandkids.”
At least one lawmaker on Tuesday called for House Speaker McCarthy's ouster: North Carolina Rep. Bishop, who told POLITICO he is "absolutely" considering using such a measure over the deal with President Biden.
"It is inescapable to me," Bishop said. "It has to be done."
The "motion to vacate" is a procedural tool that drew renewed focus earlier this year when House Republicans were choosing who would lead the lower chamber. The threshold to trigger the ouster of the speaker was lowered to just a single member in negotiations for McCarthy to secure his speakership. If the motion is taken up, all it would take is a simple majority to remove McCarthy from the speakership.
Bishop told reporters Tuesday that he has "no confidence" in McCarthy's leadership, adding: "no one in the Republican conference could have done a worse job" on the debt limit negotiations.
At Tuesday's press conference, other Republican lawmakers did not back Bishop's explicit call for a vote on McCarthy's removal.
"We are not there yet," said Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"We are dealing with the bill right in front of us," said Rep. Perry, when asked about the motion.
"I'm just fed up with the lies," Bishop told reporters. "I'm fed up with the lack of courage, the cowardice, and I intend, in the time that I'm here, I intend to see that there's somebody who's prepared to say what needs to be done."
McCarthy, for his part, said he is not concerned about the motion to vacate and told reporters he is confident that he will remain speaker.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters that it is "premature" to discuss any such motions.
"We’re not interested in political gamesmanship, we’re interested in avoiding catastrophic default," he said Tuesday.
With that many defections in a narrow majority, McCarthy will have to rely on the support of House Democrats to pass the bill – potentially as much as half of the minority conference.
When asked how many conservatives he can afford to lose on Tuesday, McCarthy said: "We'll work through it and make that happen." He also said he has not talked to House Democratic Leader Jeffries, D-N.Y., about how many votes his caucus will be able to provide to make up the difference.
"Any time there's an agreement with two parties, there's always two parties who vote for that at the end," McCarthy told reporters.
Speaking separately to reporters on Tuesday, Jeffries said it is his "expectation" that Republicans will "keep their commitment to produce at least two-thirds of their conference, which is approximately 150 votes."
Progressive lawmakers were unable to stop new work requirements for people 50 to 54 who receive government food assistance and are otherwise able-bodied without dependents. The Republicans demanded the bolstered work requirements as part of the deal, but some say the changes to the food stamp program are not enough.
The Republicans were also pushing to beef up work requirements for health care and other aid; Biden refused to go along on those.
One notable progressive, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, told Spectrum News that she is a firm "no" on the bill.
"I certainly would have appreciated if the White House brought in the House Democratic caucus more," she said.
At a press call on Tuesday, Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said that they were in the process of taking a whip of votes to determine "whether or not the CPC will take an official position."
Jayapal, who leads the influential left-leaning caucus of 100 voting members of the House, said that Republicans "did not win any major concessions on spending," but noted that there are provisions that she is "seriously concerned about," particularly highlighting the end of the student loan pause and "new bureaucratic red tape on nutritional assistance programs."
"The Republicans did not win any major concessions on spending," Jayapal said.
"There is no meaningful debt reduction here," she charged. "What [Republicans] do get is some of their extreme ideological priorities."
What Jayapal did cite as a positive, however, was "that it raises the debt limit to 2025 and ensures that we avoid a Republican-led catastrophic default and ensures that people's retirement accounts, Social Security payments and veterans care are safe."
The Washington Democrat also made a bold statement about what her party should do if they retake the majority in the House and maintain the Senate majority next year: "We need to get rid of the debt ceiling when we next take the majorities back."
"We do want to immediately sit down with with the president and some of the leadership of the [CPC], and talk about what the next two years is going to be like," she said, adding: "I worry that this precedent will just lead Republicans to be even more aggressive in in burning down the house and then blaming firefighters."
Jayapal also noted that her members had a "very good conversation" about the bill and praised the White House for tempering Republican demands in the bill. She added, however, that it should not be her caucus' responsibility to get enough votes to pass the bill.
"[McCarthy] got us here and it’s on him to deliver the votes," she said.
Questions are also being raised about an unexpected provision that essentially gives congressional approval to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a natural gas project important to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that many Democrats and others oppose.
"I’m voting NO on the $4T of additional debt," Florida Rep. Luna wrote on Twitter. "This bill is not good for ANY American. It only helps out special interests…oh yeah, and Joe Manchin’s project."
Manchin, for his part, told West Virginia Metro News' Hoppy Kercheval on Tuesday that he believes the bill will "absolutely" pass in bipartisan fashion.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said in a statement that he was "extremely disappointed" by the inclusion of the pipeline approval and would file an amendment to try and remove it from the final bill.
Another Senate lawmaker, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, said he will push for an amendment to increase defense spending in the measure: "I will use all powers available to me in the Senate to have amendment votes to undo this catastrophe for defense."
"I support raising the debt limit for 90 days to give us a chance to correct this disaster for defense," he wrote on Twitter, adding: "Have total disgust for political leaders’ decision to make it remotely possible to gut our national security apparatus at a time of great peril. Take this absurd idea off the table."
But with just days to go until the default deadline, changes might not be possible. A default would almost certainly crush the U.S. economy and spill over around the globe, as the world’s reliance on the stability of the American dollar and the country’s leadership fall into question.
In a statement of support on Tuesday, the Biden administration underscored the importance of quickly advancing the bill.
"A default could have catastrophic impacts on every single part of this country," the statement reads. "It could lead to an economic recession, devastate retirement accounts, and cost our Nation millions of jobs."
"H.R. 3746 is an important step forward that protects key Administration priorities and legislative accomplishments," the statement continues. "It would suspend the debt limit until January 2025, fund discretionary programs at the same levels as Fiscal Year 2023, and fully fund veterans’ health care and our obligations under the historic PACT Act. The bill would protect bedrock programs that seniors and working families rely on including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And, the bill would protect and accelerate implementation of the historic clean energy and environmental justice investments in the Inflation Reduction Act."
The House aims to vote Wednesday and send the bill to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are working for a quick passage by the end of the week, ahead of Monday's deadline.
Schumer on Tuesday officially backed the bill and said that the Senate will take up the measure as soon as it clears the House.
"I support the bipartisan agreement that President Biden has produced with Speaker McCarthy," the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor. "Avoiding default is an absolute imperative. Senators must be prepared to act with urgency to send a final product to the President's desk for the June 5 deadline."
“I’ll make sure the Senate moves quickly," he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.