House GOP Assembling Debt Limit Package

House Republican leaders are reportedly putting together a debt-limit package they intend to share with their caucus when Congress returns from Easter recess next week.

According to Punchbowl News, the legislation would lift the debt limit until May 2024 and may include either a cap on non-defense discretionary spending or a cap on overall discretionary spending after reducing it to FY2022 levels. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has tasked Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) with taking the lead on crafting the proposal, which would require action by several committees.

Congressional Republicans have been at loggerheads with Democrats and President Biden over raising the debt limit, with Republicans wanting major spending cuts included as part of any deal and the White House preferring a clean deal to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debts. The Treasury Department has already initiated a series of technical moves known as “extraordinary measures” to avoid a potentially disastrous default on the nation’s debt. These moves are expected to hold the government over until at least early June.

Even if McCarthy gets the votes to move the House GOP debt-limit package, it’s considered dead on arrival in the Senate. However, McCarthy is said to believe the proposal can jumpstart negotiations with the White House.