White House and House GOP negotiators are racing to finalize a deal to raise the nation's debt limit with time running perilously short and the risk of a first-ever US default growing.
There have been some signs that talks have progressed in recent days, and negotiators are hoping to announce an agreement as soon as Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy left the US Capitol on Friday evening while his top Republican negotiators, Reps. Garret Graves of Louisiana and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina worked late into the night drafting the final details of the deal from the speaker's office.
While there are still a few outstanding issues being worked out, people involved in the process felt confident they could be resolved in a timely manner.
It's unclear when the final bill text will be released. If a deal does come together and legislation is posted on Saturday, a House floor vote could occur as soon as Tuesday. Then it would take several days to move through the Senate.
Still, it's an ambitious timeline, and the process of turning a framework into an actual bill can be laborious. New issues could easily crop up at each step along the way, and each step has the potential to be time-consuming, running out the clock ahead of the debt limit deadline early next month. The two sides, however, have been trying to firm up the legislative text as they've gone along in a bid to speed up that process.
And selling the deal to members will be no small task either, with stiff opposition expected from both the left and right. That means it's going to require an intense whipping operation -- and support from both sides of the aisle -- to get the bill over the finish line.
Major disagreements
One of the most critical issues has been reaching a deal over spending cuts, which Republicans have demanded in exchange for voting to raise the debt limit. But there have also been major disagreements over other issues such as work requirements for social safety net programs, which Republicans have pushed for and Democrats have pushed back on.
The pressure on negotiators is intense as the US steadily inches closer to the possibility of a default and the threat of economic catastrophe.
In a major development Friday that will give lawmakers more time to reach and pass a deal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Congress must address the debt ceiling by June 5 or the government will not have enough funds to pay all of the nation's obligations in full and on time. Previously, Yellen had estimated that the earliest possible date a default could occur was June 1.
McHenry outlined earlier Friday how challenging it has been to reach agreement over key issues and conveyed how precarious the effort to secure a deal has become.
"There is forward progress," the North Carolina Republican told CNN. "But each time there's forward progress, the issues that remain become more difficult and more challenging. So that is step-by-step, small-step-by-small-step, and at some point, this thing can come together or go the other way."
"Hell no," Graves told CNN when asked if Republicans were willing to drop work requirements on social safety net programs to get a deal on the debt ceiling. "Hell no, not a chance," he said and suggested the issue centers on work rules for food stamps and temporary assistance programs for needy families, not Medicaid.
Yellen has continued to warn Congress there is little time left to address the debt ceiling before the nation could default on its obligations.
Adding to the challenge of pinning down a timeline is the fact that debt limit predictions aren't clear-cut. Rather than a set-in-stone deadline, it is more of a best-guess estimate, which makes it harder to know exactly how much time Congress has to act to avert potential financial catastrophe.