The House Freedom Caucus put out its position on the debt ceiling negotiations on Thursday and said its members needed to see the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” passed by the Senate and signed into law, dampening hopes of the group supporting a compromise bill that raises the debt ceiling.
The Washington Examiner reported Thursday morning about the skepticism within the Freedom Caucus about what might come out of a debt ceiling compromise following negotiations between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), President Joe Biden, and their teams. And early Thursday afternoon, the conservative group drew a line in the sand, calling on McCarthy and Senate Republicans to “use every leverage and tool at their disposal to ensure the Limit, Save, Grow Act is signed into law.”
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“There should be no further discussion until the Senate passes the legislation,” the group said in a press release.
The “Limit, Save, Grow Act” was passed by the House in April, and it raised the debt ceiling while making significant spending cuts and caps to hone in government spending. Biden has vowed to veto the bill, and Senate Democrats have expressed no plans to take up the bill.
But as negotiations continue on what a compromise bill to raise the debt ceiling would look like, multiple members of the Freedom Caucus previously made clear they do not want to see a watered-down version of the bill that already passed the House. And this stance confirms that the rest of the Freedom Caucus shares the same sentiment.
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This poses a problem for McCarthy who, in a slim majority, can’t afford to lose more than four Republican votes on any bill that doesn’t garner bipartisan support. And even if there is a compromise that Democrats can get on board with, progressives have said they won’t support anything that adds work requirements to welfare services, something McCarthy has said must be in the bill.
While the details continue to get ironed out, the clock is ticking down to get a deal, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterating earlier this week that the country is on track to default on its debt on June 1. This gives Congress and the White House around two weeks to come to a deal.
