CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
July 20, 2011 – 10:14 p.m.
Plans Take Shape for McConnell-Reid Debt Bill While Others Explore Options
By Joseph J. Schatz, CQ Staff
While the president and top House Republicans continue to search for a deficit bargain, Senate leaders are pressing ahead with their plan to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
So far, the House has shown little interest in the fallback plan being engineered by Senate Minority Leader
But that might not stop the Senate from trying to force the House’s hand.
Senate leaders are aiming to deliver their compromise package to the House late next week, which would leave Congress very little time before the government exhausts its borrowing authority Aug. 2.
Some House Republicans have shown renewed interest in the idea of a short-term debt limit increase, which Majority Leader
While President Obama previously has rejected the idea of a short-term deal, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday opened the door to a such an approach if it were meant to be a way to buy time for a long-term agreement.
The administration subsequently slammed the door on any short-term deal longer than a few days. But Senate Minority Whip
Despite increasing talk that the momentum — and possible solution — for the debt limit debate lies in the Senate, House Republican leaders continue to believe that they have considerable leverage in working with Obama, according to the aide.
“The Senate moves too slowly to jam anything through the House. It would take them time to cobble something together in the Senate,” the aide said. “The Senate has nothing that can pass the House.”
White House Talks Continue
With just two weeks to go before a possible default, Obama restarted direct negotiations with top lawmakers Wednesday evening. But unlike last week’s talks, he met with Republicans and Democrats separately.
House Republican leaders continue to believe that multiple options remain on the table in their dealings with Obama — including, perhaps, allowing for additional revenue in a deficit reduction plan. The president’s meeting with Speaker
Another House GOP aide predicted that if no far-reaching, $4 trillion deal materializes, the House might settle on a debt limit increase totaling no more than $1 trillion as a short-term offer.
Plans Take Shape for McConnell-Reid Debt Bill While Others Explore Options
Under House GOP leaders’ demand that any increase in the debt limit must be paired with equal spending cuts, that would satisfy the government’s borrowing needs into 2012.
In the Senate, leaders are following a different course. Reid said he would file a cloture motion Thursday and set up a vote the morning of July 23 on a motion to proceed to the “cut, cap and balance” bill (
The Senate is expected to reject the House plan, which would institute stringent spending cuts and caps, and make a debt ceiling increase contingent on congressional approval of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.
With that vote out of the way, Senate leaders plan to move to the McConnell-Reid compromise bill that would largely give the president the power to raise the debt limit in three stages. Under one scenario under discussion, the Senate would move through a series of procedural votes next week and send the bill to the House, meaning that critical House votes might occur in the last few days before Aug. 2.
That would leave little time for negotiation if the House rejects the Senate plan.
And laying down a procedural strategy sidesteps the fact that details of the plan remain fluid as leaders look for ways to make it more palatable.
McConnell-Reid
The McConnell-Reid plan is unpopular in the House, particularly among conservatives — more than 80 of whom have signed a letter urging House leaders not to bring it to the floor. Still, no other plan has gained significant traction on its own.
As first proposed by McConnell last week, the proposal would effectively allow the president to request $2.5 trillion in new debt limit authority in three installments over the next year and a half. But the plan would not guarantee any spending cuts to accompany those increases, a deeply unsettling prospect for many House conservatives.
Instead, it would establish a legislative committee to come up with deficit reduction measures of its own, including plans to reduce the costs of entitlement programs.
But concerns from moderates and House conservatives over the initial outlines and the absence of specifics have presented an opportunity for the Senate “Gang of Six” to drum up support for its own deficit plan.
Their $3.7 trillion deficit reduction plan includes both spending cuts and revenue increases. Members of the Senate group are trying to persuade Reid to incorporate elements of it into the Senate compromise.
Yet despite an outpouring of positive sentiments, Senate leaders, top committee chairmen and some conservatives and liberals alike remain wary of the Gang’s approach. A bipartisan letter in support of the plan had drawn 33 signatures by Wednesday evening, far short of the 60-vote supermajority needed to advance any proposal. The group is expected to reveal more details of its plan Thursday morning.
Plans Take Shape for McConnell-Reid Debt Bill While Others Explore Options
North Dakota Democrat
Conrad said one option is to require that the Gang’s plan gets a vote in Congress if a congressional committee created by the McConnell-Reid legislation were to “deadlock” in its efforts to come up with a deficit reduction plan.
Another option is to allow Congress to vote on the Gang’s plan along with any proposal produced by the congressional committee, he said.
Richard E. Cohen contributed to this story.