House lawmakers are leaving Washington for the long holiday weekend Thursday afternoon — just one week before the Treasury Department says the U.S. is at risk of a debt default — without a deal to raise the debt ceiling.
Negotiators say they’re getting closer to striking a deal to avert a default next week, but an agreement didn’t appear imminent Thursday.
Leaving the Capitol Thursday night, McCarthy said the two sides had not yet reached an agreement.
“We’ve been talking to the White House all day, we’re going back and forth, and it’s not easy,” he said. “We want to make sure this is an agreement worthy of the American people, and so it takes a while to make it happen and we’re working hard to make it happen.”
The Speaker said he will be working from the Capitol this weekend.
“The update here is that the work continues. I think there’s a sense of understanding from both teams that we have serious issues still to work out and come to terms with, and that’s gonna take some time. That’s all there is to it,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a key ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and negotiator in spending talks with the White House, said as he walked into McCarthy’s office earlier.
“It’s just the weirdest thing to be going home in the middle of an impending disaster,” Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) told The Hill on Thursday.
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