Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday there are ongoing discussions about Congress needing to increase the debt ceiling before leaving for the August recess.
Mnuchin, asked if he wants a pre-August vote on raising the country’s borrowing cap, said it would be his “preference to see them pass something, and again we’re in discussions about that.”
{mosads}”That is something we’re having discussions about, updating the numbers and potentially the need to do something before everybody leaves,” Mnuchin said.
Mnuchin’s comments came after a closed-door meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought about a deal to lift the spending caps and increase the debt ceiling.
The debt limit has essentially been put on the back burner of the larger spending talks. But lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned after a new study released this week predicted the debt ceiling would need to be raised by early September, days after Congress returns from its summer recess.
Needing to increase the debt ceiling before leaving town for the August break would give Congress a matter of weeks to figure out their strategy about how to bring up the vote, which often sparks backlash, particularly from fiscal hawks.
Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Republicans want a two-year budget caps deal, which would allow them to avoid a divisive fight in the middle of the 2020 election, but there’s little sign that they’ll be able to clinch the agreement before they leave town at the end of the month.
“We just want it passed. We don’t care how it’s passed,” Mnuchin added when asked if the debt vote should be a “clean” standalone measure.
The meeting in McConnell’s office comes after spending talks derailed late last month amid a standoff between the White House and congressional Democrats.
If Congress can’t get a deal, Mnuchin has floated a one-year continuing resolution, which would extend current spending levels, with a one-year debt ceiling hike — an offer that has been
panned by Senate Republicans.
Instead, they have pointed to the White House and Pelosi as the two “key players” required to sign off before they can get a deal and urged them to resume talks.
“Secretary Mnuchin is discussing the matter with the Speaker, and that’s where it goes next,” McConnell told reporters after the meeting on Wednesday.
Pelosi had been expected to speak with Mnuchin by the phone on Wednesday, after the two initially discussed the debt ceiling and spending talks on Tuesday.
But an aide said on Wednesday evening that the call had been moved to Thursday afternoon at Mnuchin’s request.
