House Republicans made post-midnight changes to their sweeping debt ceiling package to win over holdouts, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed ahead Wednesday with plans to launch debate and round up support from his slim majority for a vote this week.
Facing a revolt from Midwestern Republicans over doing away with biofuel tax credits that were just passed into law last year by President Joe Biden, Republicans relented and allowed the tax credits to stay on the books.
Republicans also agreed to more quickly launch the bolstered work requirements for recipients of government aid, starting in 2024 as proposed by another holdout, Freedom Caucus' Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who has led previous challenges to McCarthy.
The changes were approved at a 2 a.m. session of the House Rules Committee despite earlier repeated insistence by McCarthy and his leadership team that there would be no changes.
The floor debate is expected to launch at noon Wednesday, a final vote on the sprawling package likely pushes to Thursday.
Republicans hold a five-seat majority and face several absences this week, leaving McCarthy with almost no votes to spare.
“This week, we will pass the bill on this floor,” McCarthy told reporters late Tuesday.
The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jim McGovern, derided the “midnight seance" that produced the final package, particularly “cruelly” imposing stricter work requirements on recipients of food stamps and other government aid.
“Taking food away from people is a rotten thing to do,” said McGovern of Massachusetts in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
While the 320-page package has almost no chance of becoming law, McCarthy is using it as a strategy to shake up the debate. Biden has so far refused to engage with House Republicans on what the White House calls “hostage taking” over the debt ceiling, and threatened to veto the package, which couples a debt ceiling increase with restrictions on federal spending. McCarthy hopes passage will kickstart talks with Democrats.
But McCarthy acknowledged after closed-door meetings late Tuesday that not all House Republicans were fully on board with the proposal. He insisted that passing this bill would be merely a starting point for negotiations with Biden and Democrats, and not the final product.
“There’s a number of members that will vote for it going forward and say there are some concerns they have,” he said. But he said they will also say they are ready to vote anyway: “They want to make sure the negotiation goes forward.”
It’s a first big test for the president and the Republican speaker, coming at a time of increased political anxiety about the need to raise the federal debt limit, now at $31 trillion, to keep paying the country’s already accrued debts.
The Treasury Department is taking “extraordinary measures” to pay the bills, but funding is expected to run out this summer. Economists and experts warn that even the threat of a federal debt default would send shockwaves through the economy.
In exchange for raising the debt limit by $1.5 trillion into 2024, the bill would rollback federal spending to fiscal 2022 levels and cap future spending increases at 1% a year for the next decade.
The package would also impose tougher work requirements on recipients of food stamps and government aid, halt Biden’s plans to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans and end the landmark renewable energy tax breaks Biden signed into law last year. It would tack on a sweeping Republican bill to boost oil, gas and coal production.
A nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis released Tuesday showed the Republican plan would reduce federal deficits by $4.8 trillion over the decade if the proposed changes were enacted into law.
As the Biden administration continues to see the potential for an imminent invasion of Ukraine after contradictory reports of a Russian troop pullback or buildup, Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif. 7th District), a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, joined Cheddar News to give his insight into the tense situation. "When I was in Ukraine a couple of weeks ago and we were talking with the Ukrainian leadership with President Zelensky, they said we ought to approach Vladimir Putin as though he was a poker player," he said. "So this could be one of those head fakes where he's saying one thing and doing another thing."
The Biden Administration has now issued new guidelines when it comes to carbon capture. The new guidelines handed down this week encouraged the widespread use of climate attacks that traps and stores carbon emissions. The goal here is the process would help keep carbon out of the atmosphere without requiring a whole lot of change by big companies and manufacturing plants. Several scientists say that this method would be crucial to help us decrease the use of carbon emissions by the year 2050. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, Mark Jacobson, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Natalie Fertig, federal cannabis policy reporter for Politico Pro, joins Cheddar News to discuss the latest in marijuana legalization in the United States.
The Biden administration is launching a new task force to promote the use of 'cleaner' construction materials with lower life cycle emissions. This comes as the White House works to speed up government purchases of greener products. Sweta Chakraborty, climate change expert and U.S. president of "We Don't Have Time," joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Due to the staffing shortages of teachers in New Mexico, the state has been encouraging its National Guard members to fill in as licensed substitutes to keep schools open. Kurt Steinhaus, New Mexico secretary of education, joined Cheddar News to explain the state's stopgap measure amid its lack of teaching professionals. "The first thing they have to go through a fingerprint background check, just like any other substitute new Mexico. The second thing they have to do is go through some online training, and then we provided some in-person professional development about classroom management," Steinhaus explained about the qualifications process.
With contradictory reports about Russian troops pulling back or being added to the border with Ukraine and the expulsion of a U.S. diplomat from Russia, tensions in the region appear to be escalating. Jack Detsch, a Pentagon and national security reporter for Foreign Policy, joined Cheddar News to break down the situation. "Certainly a different tone out of Moscow today and a different tone out of the West. Even as the Kremlin has made the case that troops are moving back, the U.S. is saying that is certainly not the case with the satellite imagery that we have pouring in," he said.
New York City's famous subway system is currently facing scrutiny after several recent attacks on platforms. Now, local leaders in the Big Apple are calling on the MTA. To step in and take action.
Tensions in Ukraine continue to rise. According to NATO and U.S. officials, Russian troops are still being built up despite Moscow's claims of de-escalation. However, Ukraine does not believe the troops are enough to mount an invasion. The government in Kyiv has also reported several cyber attacks against its defense agencies and banks which is the largest attack in the country's history. Foreign Affairs Reporter based in Ukrain, Terrell Starr, joined Cheddar to discuss more
