May 01
By Kaia Hubbard
The House is out this week on the heels of a key victory for Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the debt limit fight, as Republicans in the lower chamber narrowly approved legislation last week that would raise the debt ceiling while slashing federal spending. Now, all eyes are on Democrats for the next moves to avert a catastrophic default, after McCarthy declared that “we’ve done our job.”
But how the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House proceed is only beginning to take shape. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who pledged that the GOP legislation is dead on arrival in the upper chamber, wrote in a letter to colleagues Monday morning that the Senate would conduct hearings on the House legislation “to show the public what this bill truly is.”
“Beginning this week, our Committees will begin to hold hearings to expose the true impact of this reckless legislation on everyday Americans,” Schumer wrote, calling the bill “a hard-right ransom note to the American people.”
The first of those hearings is expected Thursday, when the Senate Budget Committee is set to take up the issue.
While Republicans have insisted that raising the debt ceiling without addressing “reckless” government spending would be irresponsible, the White House has called for a clean debt-limit hike and accused Republicans of “holding the American economy hostage.” But with the House vote on the legislation, McCarthy has put pressure on President Joe Biden to come to the table.
Absent a debt ceiling hike, the government is expected to default sometime between June and September, when the “x” date when it can no longer pay its bills is projected. That deadline is expected to become clearer in the coming days, when the Treasury Department updates its projections, adding to simmering tensions in Washington over the issue.
Accordingly, even some Democrats have called on Biden to sit down with McCarthy in order to avert a costly and unprecedented default. But most have reiterated that the president should only discuss spending cuts and the debt ceiling separately.
“What the president is saying is he’s not going to negotiate with someone who’s actually threatening the economy,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, told Fox News on Sunday. “He will sit down with Speaker McCarthy to talk about these issues in the framework of the budget and the appropriations process.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont agreed, telling CNN on Sunday that a clean debt ceiling bill is needed and adding that negotiations can start “tomorrow” on spending cuts, but not while Republicans are “holding the American people and the world’s economy hostage.”
Biden last week told reporters he’s “happy to meet with McCarthy” – but not on whether to extend the debt limit, he said, adding that “that’s not negotiable.”
Outside of the debt ceiling fight, the Senate Judiciary Committee is also set to hold a hearing on Supreme Court ethics on Tuesday, despite a rejected request for testimony from Chief Justice John Roberts.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, has led the charge in recent weeks on ethics reform at the high court after a recent bombshell report revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas received unreported gifts from a GOP donor, among more recent revelations. Durbin invited Roberts or another justice to testify before the committee on the subject. But Roberts declined last week, citing separation of powers concerns and judicial independence.
Democrats lack a majority needed on the committee to subpoena the justices for their testimony due to a prolonged absence from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which has likewise complicated efforts to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominations and spurred calls for her resignation from fellow Democrats. That dynamic is expected to continue this week, with no updates on her plans to return to the Senate.
Meanwhile, McCarthy is leading a bipartisan delegation to Israel this week to mark 75 years since Israel gained independence. On Monday, he became the first speaker in more than two decades to address Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
“America is grateful for our friendship with Israel,” McCarthy said in his address on Monday. “We are a better nation because of it. And we must never shy away from defending it.”