House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deal with President Biden to hike the nation’s debt limit until after the 2024 election cleared a key test vote on Wednesday despite an internal GOP rebellion.
The House voted 241-to-187 to advance the legislation, setting up a final vote Wednesday night. Overall, 52 House Democrats voted with 189 Republicans to begin debate on the deal, over fierce opposition from lawmakers on the left and right.
The hardline House Freedom Caucus made a concerted effort to derail consideration of the bill. The more than 40-member group has labeled the bipartisan agreement a “watered-down betrayal” of conservative principles.
“At best we have a two-year spending freeze that’s full of loopholes and gimmicks that would allow for increased funding for the federal bureaucracy in order to achieve a $4 trillion increase in the debt [limit],” said Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican.
On the procedural vote, 29 GOP lawmakers voted against moving forward with the legislation, and four Republicans didn’t vote.
Conservative hardliners are not the only ones opposed to the deal. Some moderate Republicans also say the bill is a far call from the debt limit proposal passed by House Republicans last month.
“It simply does not live up to the expectations we set and I cannot in good conscience vote for it,” said Rep. Jeff Van Drew, New Jersey Republican.
But Mr. Van Drew and numerous other opponents of the deal voted anyway in favor of advancing it toward a final vote. Many say the decision was simply procedural and a bow to reality, since Democrats are poised to provide enough support for final passage to cover any GOP defections.
The agreement would raise the $31.4 trillion debt limit until after the 2024 presidential election. It would also claw back billions of dollars in unspent pandemic relief and cut IRS funding by more than $20 billion over two years.
Mr. Biden secured a win by keeping domestic spending flat for the upcoming fiscal year in the face of GOP calls for at least $130 billion in immediate cuts. Both sides found bipartisan agreement on boosting defense spending by more than $26 billion.
Republicans got a victory by forcing Mr. Biden to agree to cap the growth of federal spending at 1% next year.
“This House Republican win rescinds $28 billion in unobligated Covid funds. It cuts over $2 trillion in government spending. It reins in the executive branch,” said Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, Pennsylvania Republican. “And it rejects the president’s extreme $5 trillion in proposed tax increases.”
The agreement further expands work requirements for recipients of food stamps and direct cash payments until 2030. Able-bodied, childless recipients of each program age 54 and younger would have to work at least 20 hours per week to keep their benefits.
Under the deal, childless food stamp recipients would be subject to new restrictions for how long they can collect the benefits. The deal excludes veterans and the homeless from the work requirements while expanding their food stamps benefits.
While the new restrictions will save taxpayer money, the expanded benefits for veterans and the homeless will actually cause overall spending for food stamps to increase. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the changes will cost taxpayers an additional $2.1 billion over the next decade.
“We have watered-down work requirements that CBO said will actually increase the cost of SNAP by $2 billion,” said Mr. Roy.
Despite that reality, progressive Democrats say the new work requirements are still too onerous for working people.
“While this agreement exempts [food stamp] work requirements for some vulnerable communities, it expands work requirements for others,” said Rep. Cori Bush, Missouri Democrat who opposed to the deal. “Pitting our most vulnerable communities against each other is policy violence. There should be no trade-off when it comes to ensuring people have food.”
Apart from expanding work requirements, the deal also institutes a pay-as-you-go provision requiring Mr. Biden to offset rules or regulations that increase federal spending.
Mr. McCarthy has hailed the inclusion a win, but GOP critics note that legislation also allows the White House to waive it if necessary for efficiency. The bill further states that OMB’s waiver cannot be challenged by the courts.
“The OMB director has sole waiver authority to spend if it’s ‘necessary for program delivery.’ So that one line wipes out PAYGO,” Rep. Nancy Mace, South Carolina Republican. “These words on paper are totally meaningless if you read the fine print.”
House Republicans initially sought a $130 billion cut to non-defense spending this year and a decade’s worth of spending caps. They also wanted to cancel Mr. Biden‘s student-loan forgiveness program and rescind more than $200 billion in green energy tax credits that Democrats passed last year
Mr. McCarthy has already pledged the debt limit deal is only a precursor to a fight over budget cuts as Congress begins to assemble this fall’s government funding bill.
“I’m not going to give up on the American people, and this isn’t the end,” said Mr. McCarthy, California Republican. “This doesn’t solve all the problems. This is the first step.”
But the promise of a bigger fight is problematic. Within the debt limit, Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Biden tucked in a provision ensuring a 1% spending cut across the government if Congress does not adopt a funding bill by Jan. 1.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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